Mulberry, drypoint, 42 cm x 32 cm, 2023
framed

400 €

During an artistic residency at Banska Stanica Contemporary in Banská Stiavnica, Slovakia, I created a limited series of 5 graphics using the dry needle technique under the guidance of Slovakian artist Svätopluk Mikyta. The motif was a 500-year-old Mulberry tree, which my friend, winemaker Miro Bahna, showed me in the wine-growing village of Pukanec.

My desire to understand the inner world of trees was inspired by the novella "Salt Pine" written by the Finnish author Joni Skiftesvik, who lives in Oulu. Only at the end of the story is the point revealed - the narrator is a 400-year-old pine tree. The pine tree, whose roots are washed by the cold Baltic Sea, has been a silent witness to love, murder, and historical changes in Finnish society.

This book hit me hard. It was the first time I met the main character of the story, who was a tree.