Monthly image: Heat by Liisa Lehtimäki

Liisa Lehtimäki: Heat, wood and steel, 2018 (stag 280 cm x 335 cm x 90 cm, hind 98 cm x 240 cm x 155 cm)

The source of inspiration for my art is nature. I portray animals, plants and different shapes found in nature in my own way. I want to create something living. My art somehow tells the viewer about my own spiritual world and my memories, from where I draw subjects surprisingly often. As an artist, I enjoy sculpture most, but at times I want to paint as well. Variety is the spice of life.

A tree continues living even after felling

I have a huge appreciation of nature. The forest is a world of its own, its organisms and animals behave in a fascinating way and still outside the human world, untouched. I prefer wood as a material in almost any form. A tree continues living even after felling, it cracks and continues to live. Wood supports and bends just right so it is easy to work for different purposes. Wood tissue is ductile and durable and it feels warm in your hands. Although wood is the material I prefer, I do not limit my working on one material alone. There are countless materials and I want to get acquainted with each of them with interest and enthusiasm, e.g. in large sculptures I use metal as frame material.

Creating 3D is thrilling; I become absorbed in creating and searching for the form intensely. Animal sculptures are born with a kind of a self when they first get their limbs, then their movements and finally gestures of their own. My latest work of art is my final project in Fine Arts, a sculpture ensemble called Heat. The work consists of two life-sized elk sculptures. My aim is to arouse the viewer´s interest by the connection between the stag and the hind. The connection is a journey to a primitive world. The tension between the animals is unbroken.

In six months the sculptures came to life from steel and dried wooden lopped branches

In six months the sculptures came to life from steel and dried wooden lopped branches. The materials I use in my works do not last forever, the steel rusts and wood decomposes in due course. The sculpture will last the lifetime of an elk. I made the sculpture ensemble to reflect myself and my inner world, and maybe also my way of thinking. The process itself is personal and I feel that I grew up as an artist regarding creativity and structural design. I saw the sculptures as living creatures and in my mind they got a soul when I was working on them, attaching the surface wood parallel to fur and creating the taut and relaxed parts in leg muscles. I want the viewer to experience at least a part of what I feel when studying the work.

Liisa Lehtimäki was born in Tammela in 1994. She graduated from the Degree Programme in Fine Arts in Kankaanpää in June 2018.

Contact information:
Web pages: liisalehtimaki.wordpress.com
Email: lehtilii(a)gmail.com