Tuuli - Wind

Wax crayon. Rinta-Perälä, 2018.

Favourite films about identity, isolation, one person against insuperable odds

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Vampyr (1932)
Carl Theodor Dreyer

Rear Window (1954)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Case of Mr. Pelham (1955)
Alfred Hitchcock

Repulsion (1965)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
The Tenant (1976)
Roman Polanski

Blowup (1966)
Michelangelo Antonioni

Duel (1971)
Steven Spielberg

The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick

Onnekas - Lucky

Wax crayon. Rinta-Perälä, 2018.

Drawing music examples

I always play music in the background when I'm drawing.
In silence I tend to freeze. One drawing usually takes 2-3 hours.
These examples are also some of my favourites.

Claude Debussy: Nocturnes (1899)

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 (1943)

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho (1960)

1960s Greek Avant-garde

Ennio Morricone: Drammi Gotici (1977)

Siege: Drop Dead (1984)

Diamanda Galas: The Divine Punishment (1986)

Thorns: Trøndertun (1992)

Thorns: Thorns (2001)

Virus: Carheart (2003)

Lisko - Lizard

Wax crayon. Rinta-Perälä, 2018.

Nouseva - Rising

Wax crayon. Rinta-Perälä, 2018.

Senseless crimes against frames

Let's get rid of these completely. Starting next year.

The power of the single image

In my art the image is the thing. The thing you possibly fall in love with because it made you stop and go under the surface. This powerful experience is made stronger when you develop a relationship with the image.

This power does not just emerge from something that is shared, mentioned or commercialised. It is not just information. The powerful image is something you keep going back to. You appreciate both the ideas and the meaningful moments it has given you.

The hunger for ideas is genuine and universal. Artists can set an example by not feeling embarrassed about their wandering curiosity. They are not following constantly the same exact logic. Elements within the image can simultaneously feel familiar and foreign.

I don't know exactly where the ideas come from, but I always face the real challenge when I'm awake and fearless. When I'm not cynically reluctant or jaded and lethargic. I seek these powerful experiences and no one else can do that exploration for me.

I don't want you to be bored with black and white

I have never had a list of black and white techniques and I never will.

Black and white is about shapes and it is filled with possibilities. That's all I need to know. I will never know everything about black and white. It's the same with darkness and light. They are not just what you think they are. I will try different things within these limitations as long as I can.

Different people have reacted to my works and there's one word
I keep hearing: dark.

My works are more than that. They are suggestive and emotional.
I'm not going to avoid darker ideas, but I'm not going to focus on them either. There are things we don't usually talk about, not just because they're dark, but because they're hard to explain.

I want you to see more than just the surface or cliches of black and white.

Walking around with my mind open

I once scanned and printed a 500-page Finnish thesaurus because
I love words and language. It doesn't make me a writer. There's an undeniable joy in finding the right words and discarding the fillers.
I don't want my drawing or song titles to have extra words. What I'm left with has to feel right.

I love looking at empty buildings at night because of the way they feel. It doesn't make me an expert. Most of the time it has nothing to do with the actual history or purpose.

I love random articles on Wikipedia because I never know what I'm going to discover. It doesn't make me a nerd. One thought leads to another and my mind is busy. You don't always have to find anything specific.

Why are you here and what are you looking for? I guess I don't know.

One thing I do know: I don't want to end up in a
literal-minded dead-end.

Stanley Kubrick Interviews

In Kubrick's view: "The emotions of people are far more similar than their intellects. The common bond is their subconscious emotional reaction. Watching a film is like having a daydream. It operates on portions of your mind that are only reached by dreams or dramas, and there you can explore things without any responsibility of conscious ego or conscience."

Mind's Eye: A Clockwork Orange, John Hofsess 1971

"I don't think that any work of art has a responsibility to be anything but a work of art. There obviously is a considerable controversy, just as there always has been, about what is a work of art, and I should be the last to try to define that. I was amused by Cocteau's Orphée when the poet is given the advice: Astonish me. The Johnsonian definition of a work of art is also meaningful to me, and that is that a work of art must either make life more enjoyable or more endurable. Another quality, which I think forms part of the definition, is that a work of art is always exhilarating and never depressing, whatever its subject matter may be."

Modern Times: An Interview with Stanley Kubrick, Philip Strick and Penelope Houston 1972

Stanley Kubrick Interviews, Gene D. Phillips

Dark, strange and beautiful

It's what I hear in most of my favourite songs - The Swan of Tuonela, Gnossienne, Strange Fruit, Oraison, Fire Walk with Me. You're trying to understand those strange feelings and that's beautiful.

Complexity deserves respect. Enchanting artists need time and space.

I've always been good at drawing but finding my own voice took 15 years. I wasn't even drawing during that time. I only had ideas for music and then one day in 2014 a new wax drawing and new feelings suddenly came out of me. I had become more experienced as a person after studying many things that had nothing to do with drawing. Developing this new technique and using wax crayons was just one part of it.

My love of things that are hard to explain deepened. I felt the strength and the force. I wasn't afraid of being different anymore after years of confusion, guilt and excuses.

My worst nightmare

"Explain every step you take."

There's a gun to my head. Explain, explain, explain.

Might as well pull the trigger. I can't live like this.

I wish people would spend more energy on exploring interesting things without worrying. Without apologising. Without this crushing sense of emptiness.

Oppressive authorities are everywhere. Even sneaking up on you when you are alone.

The fact that we exist on this planet is a miracle. How would you express your gratitude?

Top 30 favourite B&W films

1924 Sherlock Jr.
1926 Faust
1928 La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
1932 Vampyr
1932 Freaks
1932 The Old Dark House
1933 Duck Soup
1950 Rashomon
1951 Strangers on a Train
1954 La Strada
1955 Ordet
1955 Les Diaboliques
1960 Les Yeux sans visage
1960 La maschera del demonio
1960 Psycho
1961 The Innocents
1962 Carnival of Souls
1962 Cape Fear
1962 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane
1962 Lolita
1963 8½
1964 Dr. Strangelove
1964 Onibaba
1965 Repulsion
1968 Kuroneko
1968 Night of the Living Dead
1977 Eraserhead
1980 The Elephant Man
1989 Tetsuo
1994 Ed Wood

Favourite films top 50

Irreplaceable dialogues between

Mystery and birth

Identities and models

Solitary discovery and the wisdom of others

Facts and emotions

Imagined points of view and actual points of view

Tasks and impulses