Artists profile: Ari Pelkonen

Here Is a part of a interview with Ari Pelkonen, a young artist from Finland by Arlinda Sipilä. You can read the rest at designfinland.fi.

What year did you start working with woodcut and painting?

I have worked with woodcut and painting since 2004. Both techniques are important and they inspire me to use them in new ways and to invent new ways to build up the art works. Combining techniques is an inspiring starting point and way of work. Painting is something that I keep as a very important part of my working even though it effects only in the background. I choose some parts from painting that I think are important, but painting never will stand alone in my works. It effects the way of making woodcut and also the other way around, woodcut effects painting. With two techniques I can choose what is important to me.

Care to shed some light on the process of your work?

I first paint on canvas and then I 
attach my woodcut prints on canvas. Thin papers that 
I use are transparent and painting shows through. So, there is thin layers of paper on top. Painting is a way to add 
something into the prints to give them more depth. Print is part of the painting and the techniques are blending. With painting I can be fast and spontaneous and with woodcut I can use time and
 think what to do – plan things. In the esthetic way, I think that the techniques are very close.

What influences your art?

Self-portraits, landscapes, planned and unplanned, moods, layers, made impressions are things that tell something about my works and ways of working. Roles, play, masks, excitement, never ending stories effect and are kind of starting point for my new works.