The steam you get in sauna when you throw water on sauna stove is called löyly. It is believed there is löylynhenki, the spirit of steam living in each sauna providing a decent heat for its users. But you should be careful not to piss off löylynhenki, as it can easily burn off your ears!

These color combinations occur for a number of reasons. What colors of paint do I have in my studio? What color came before it? Did they mix on the palate? Did they mix on the canvas?

In this painting, I have not used any black. That was intentional. As random as the brushstrokes may seem, they were all intentional. Contrived, but with no agenda. No expectation about the composition. I didn’t ask them to look like anything.

I really just wanted that time to play in the paint. To let my mind wander down whatever path it found itself on while my eye streamed the results of what my hand was doing back to my brain.

It was later, when the paint was dry, and the canvas hung on the wall next to my bed, that I started to see forms within the composition. A whippet head… An anglerfish… Faces.

I can’t see them when I have a paintbrush in my hand.

Life is filled with conflict and stress. I’m not complaining, that is just the case. I could distract my mind by watching tv, and sometimes I do that. I wish I could spend whole days in sweatpants and a sleeping bag. When I paint, the distraction is built right in, but the escape is active and even productive.

When I sit in a sauna or a whirlpool tub, everything slows down. If I sit long enough, thoughts and memories rise up like the steam. I am often surprised by what lurks inside me, as I am by the pictures hidden in the paint.