Juha: "Can you say, 'R-r-r-r-r-r-r?'"
Don: "I'm in trouble."
I said goodbye to the wonderful ladies I had met, Anna-Maija and Heidi, who had made it possible for me to come to the Lume Center and give my talk, and who also paid for my accommodations for the week, as well as giving me a fee for my time. I really bonded with Finland's animation expert, Tuula.
the wonderful Tuula!
Don and I took a walk around Helsinki. The architecture in what is called the Center, the area around the main train station where our first hostel was, is completely spectacular. Here is just a tiny selection:
an awesome cathedral that I laughably tried to draw one icy cold morning
the National Finnish History Museum, which covers everything from the Stone Age to what the kids were wearing in 2000, and everything in between -- note the sad faced bear (?)
Inside the National Finnish History Museum I took a ton of pictures, and was particularly interested in documenting the handmade farming and fishing equipment left behind by Iron Age Finns. A lot of their softer stuff was woven out of birchbark, like this shepherd's knapsack I sketched:
And here is an awesome set of jugs:
Also in the museum is a massive mural/frescoe by the great artist Gallen-Kallelan, whose illustrations of the Kalevala I mentioned earlier as being the quintessential images that the majority of Finns associate with the poems. I want to draw on Kallelan's images for my animations in the film.
plowing the field of adders
Vainamöinen fighting off the witch in her monster form as she attacks the boat in her attempt to retrieve the Sampo
Don and I were invited to a nice party by Pekko, my co-teacher at the film festival workshop, which was the first anniversary of a small media company owned and operated by a team of about five people, some of whom, like Anne, are Pekko's former students. Although she was the hostess and had a full company of friends to attend to, Anne treated us like guests of honor and sat with us for some time, demanding to hear the story behind the film, and then talking with us in detail about the story, and about how Tom's behavior made perfect sense to her, knowing Finnish men as she does. She said that Finnish men are deeply sensitive, and at the same time, deeply ashamed of their sensitivity.
Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because Don's jet lag was catching up with him and I was fighting the flu, but the hour or two that we were there ended up making a major contribution to the overall picture of Tom's character. It was nice to hear about Finnish men from a Finnish woman.
Finn 'n' C sandwich: Pekko, C, and Anne
Most of the places I have stayed are bright, light, clean, and full of Scandinavian-type furniture, but my Helsinki digs, the Hostel Mekka, was a little grittier. It was two blocks from major museums and the railway station though, so there was no improving on the location. Still, I was moved enough by my only view, which was of a brick wall through a cracked window, to paint this watercolor, which turned out pretty cool:
Now it's off to Southern Ostrobothnia where much of the ship building took place during the past few centuries...
Until next time... Sisu!
