Monthly image: Dear God, I promise I won´t invite anyone else by Jenni Välikangas

Jenni Välikangas: Dear God, I promise I won´t invite anyone else, aquarelles, gouache, ink, water-soluble coloured pencils, gel pen, gold paint

I have always loved drawing and cartoons, and that can be seen as an element in my works of art. Painting came along a lot later, even though I have always admired the sensitivity of aquarelles, and later, after falling for them, their surprisingly challenging nature. Challenges and learning something new are an inspiration for me, when I think about my new ideas.

This time the inspirational challenge was the colourfulness of the work, its size and playing with perspectives. The idea for the work emerged when I was thinking how bored I was with my own anxieties and fears, and how to process them without unnecessary seriousness or wallowing. The first step was to overcome the tension rising from the thought to march it all out, but soon the feeling transformed into a self-perpetuating, positive, tantalizing feeling when sketching papers and my head started filling with ideas of places, figures and things.

For example camels, bird-and sheep-faced figures and horses have a strong emotional connection to grief, pride, beauty and greed.

With these thoughts in mind, also the size of the work grew from what I had earlier thought. Planning the work took this time about half of the whole working time. The concrete doing began by editing the space by computer, and transferring it by overhead projector on paper. After this, I started drawing figures, and continued to drawing with Indian ink and painting.

This work of art includes a lot of personal symbolism developed during the years. For example camels, bird- and sheep-faced figures and horses have a strong emotional connection to grief, pride, beauty and greed.

I´d like the spectator to always search for something new in the work and relate to the atmosphere how life every now and then – maybe quite concretely – feels like the matters are not in your own hands.

Jenni Välikangas was born in Kokkola in 1992. Välikangas graduated from SAMK with a Bachelor´s degree in Culture and Arts in summer 2019.

Contact information: jenni.valikangas@gmail.com