“The Kalevala” is Finland’s national epic poem. It unfolds in a harsh and beautiful landscape of dense green forests and snow-covered lakes. Of course, it contains all the elements of epics: shipwrecks, magical visions, the imprisonment of the sun and moon, bloody battles, a virgin birth, a miraculous infant, etc, all flowing toward an inconclusive outcome, like a dream. It exerted a deep influence on J.R.R. Tolkien and it worked its spell on me.
I visited Finland for two reasons: to research the origins of the poem and to see the paintings of Finland’s most famous artist (and illustrator of the epic), Alexi Gallen–Kallela (1865-1931). The artist’s home/studio/museum is located in Tarvaspää, on the outskirts of Helsinki. During one long afternoon, I was its only visitor.
I had admired the artist’s work for years, but what captivated my imagination in the studio was his piano. So I sat with it in silence and then made a detailed sketch in pencil. When I’m drawing I can be wide awake or in a dream, its hard to tell. The piano felt like a magical animal, asleep, like a sphinx, but full of power. There was no candelabra in the room, it appeared from nowhere, in the energy field of the piano. The shoes appeared out of nowhere too, grounding the instrument, even as it rose up from the floor, as light as my breath.
The artist’s home is small, but when I left, exhausted, it had felt like a cathedral. A long time passed before I was able to add the colors. The drawing is still not finished. They rarely are.
