I've been almost one year away from the art world and since last January I haven't traveled further than Madrid, 120km from the village. After Arco Madrid art fair last year February, I have met only a handful of art world people who have visited my studio. My works have been shipped to some group shows but I've stayed at home for a serious health issue in the family.

Now I'm ready to rejoin the art world. As an aperitif I'm in a group show in Talavera de la Reina, the nearest town to our village, opening on Friday. Next week I fly to Helsinki where I have two connected solo shows - Taxonomy of Anthropomorphic Animals at the Natural History Museum and Animal Show Business at Galerie Forsblom. Just after that gig, I take a portrait of Francisco Franco to this year's Arco Madrid.

I have to recall the Riiko Sakkinen artist role, which is, I guess, different than my way of being as a father and husband at home.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a poet. I didn't have enough talent or maybe I though that the audience for a Finnish language poetry was too limited - and changed my focus to visual art. However, my drawings and other works are full of text, maybe they could even be considered visual poetry.

Now I'm making tests with wooden painted books, something in between literature, painting and sculpture. If it works, I'll write a full turborealist library.

And one day I'm going to write a real book, at least a memoir.

My 14-year old daughter got her first paid job. Galerie Forsblom, which represents me in Helsinki, hired her to direct a short promotional film of my show Animal Show Business. Last summer she did a similar video of my book The Best of All Possible Worlds, the gallery staff liked it and asked her to work for them. It’s a dichotomic feeling, I’m proud of her talent and enthusiasm but on the other hand I hate the idea of my kid submerging in the capitalism and putting a price for her activities. However, it’s great to work with her and see her acting like a bosslady telling me what to do. You’ll see the results in February!

"Work, work, work, work, work, work"

(Rhianna)  

A friend said that I've been producing a massive amount of new works lately. It's true, I've spent lots of time at the studio. I haven't traveled further than Madrid (a bit more than 100km from here) since January when I had my only solo show this year in at Himmelblau, Tampere, Finland. I didn't even have any summer vacation. The result is more paintings than ever. Maybe I've learnt to paint a bit better too, though I still wouldn't call myself a real painter. As I was told in the Academy of Fine Arts, I just color in pictures.

Some of the paintings left very fresh to Piretti Art Gallery, Knokke, Belgium. Other works can be seen next February at Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki.