Päivi Helena Eskelinen
Basic information
b. 1960, Iisalmi
Visual Artist
Residence: Helsinki
Artist’s Statement
The need to find a visual form for my thoughts and feelings is the source of my art. The working process is a way to think: through the materialness of my artistic work I’m able to reach a dimension that would, without my labor, remain unknown. The elaborate technical execution is thus part of the mental process.
My works can be divided into three groups: appropriated imagery, documentary paintings and mental images. All these approaches are different forms of visual thinking. The works of mine that comment on visual culture emphasize that images aren’t born in a vacuum. My art works are part of an infinite chain of images. In my documentary paintings, the central themes are absence and the passing of time. Mental images suggest what my way of being in the world is. Briefly, through personal and universal imagery I’m picturing my existence.
My works can be divided into three groups: appropriated imagery, documentary paintings and mental images. All these approaches are different forms of visual thinking. The works of mine that comment on visual culture emphasize that images aren’t born in a vacuum. My art works are part of an infinite chain of images. In my documentary paintings, the central themes are absence and the passing of time. Mental images suggest what my way of being in the world is. Briefly, through personal and universal imagery I’m picturing my existence.
