OUR RURAL PAST: SEIJA HÄLVÄ

April 10-30, 2017

Reception: Thursday, April 13 at 6:00-7:30pm

Hours: Monday to Friday, 3:00 – 6:00 pm

Community Artist Spotlight Space at Maud Morgan Arts is a new exhibition space that showcases the work of artists living and working in the community.

In Seija’s childhood the world consisted of the fields surrounding her home, the nearby forests and lake. Her family’s dairy farm was like all the other farms of that era. Work was life’s meaning and it filled the days – summers in the fields, winters in the forest, and every day the cows.

Without romanticizing the past, this exhibition is a tribute to the work of the people of Seija’s village in Karelia, eastern Finland, and to all small scale farmers who share a similar story regardless of their country. Within the past half century the number of farmers in most developed countries has decreased from a majority to a small percentage of the population.  The theme of the exhibition springs from Seija’s personal experience as well as the universal story of our rural past. Now the villages dwindle, many farms are empty and the fields are reforested. Seija’s village is quieting and reflects this familiar change that can be observed from rural Japan to the deserted towns and villages in America.

Many of the paintings and related musings in this exhibition are compiled in the book Musings on Time Past.

ABOUT THE PAINTER
Seija studied horticulture and her creative work extends from gardens to canvas. The acrylic paintings in this exhibition spring from her realistic observations from nature and it’s people and animals. Seija paints, bakes, knits, and grows and designs gardens in Cambridge where she lives with her family. She cherishes these skills and traditions that she acquired in the village that is portrayed in many of the paintings in this exhibition.