BIO

Sanna Pöyhönen

"The Great Ladies"

For me art is learning about and sympathizing with people’s motives, thoughts, behaviours – their souls. Art is a way to satisfy my curiosity about peoples’ stories, and to express my compassion and empathy to them. I believe the essence of art is an invisible healing process that initiates from the model or the subject, and continues towards people via the work of artist.

My art work has always leaned on the tradition. I started to study ceramics 30 years ago as a teenager after watching a document of Maria Martinez, a legendary pueblo style pottery artist, who created art pieces with a fully organic process. I’m fascinated by the primitive dialogue between the earth, soil and my human hands. The ancient technique feels grounding and comforting in the middle of the digital noise we live in.

The recent work of mine ‘Mahtinaiset - Great Ladies’ is about breaking boundaries as a woman, expanding women’s roles and showing women in powerful and meaningful positions in life.

I find mythical female characters from the Finnish folklore inspiring. I hope our daughters could learn about these heroins to understand how versatile roles women have always played in the rough Nordic environment. I hope they could take their strength and peculiarities in their hearts.

The forest has always been my secret force. A place to relax, to get energy and inspiration, and to heal. Alone in the forest, I truly feel connected to the world and whole as a person.  Hence, my Great Ladies always have a piece of nature next to them. Their powers come from the connection to the nature rather than only from themselves. Even the strongest of us need the nature next to us. If we are in touch with the nature we are never alone.