A Song for Time

I paint to make visible the places where energy is stored and released. It is the human will that vibrates in the elements.

My current paintings take us into the midst of the plastic soup that we swim in. The sky is still blue, but we are choking in the useless material boiling away in our seas and on our shores. We let it go down the drain. We make it momentarily invisible when we flush it down the toilet. But it cannot go away. It stays swirling around in our waters. It fills vast areas of land. It gets washed up on our shores. It will eventually reappear in our food. It will not decay in our lifetime. We will go before it does. It comes in all colours and shapes. There is so much variety to delight in. It has been created and expended with no stinginess of mind. But it is no good – except as a concept.

I can hardly go and pick it all up myself. There are very small stretches of actual places where I can do this concretely. But as I do so, I simultaneously gather an endless collection of shapes, colours and textures. What an abundance of materials to set minds in motion.

Because I can paint it. The landscape is the stage that displays it.

We need a huge change in our priorities if we are to go on from here in a healthy way. And the best tool I have is making these paintings. Here is what I have. This is my contribution.

Kristiina Uusitalo