About me

I was born on the 12 march 1985 in Wollongong Australia. I'm half Finnish, so that explains my last name, and the reason my skin is so pale. I've lived in Australia all my life, but I would love to go to Finland one day. I think it would be great to see where my ancestors came from.

I have been drawing since I was a kid. Mostly cartoons and Things of that nature. I saw drawing as a defence mechanism. I was teased a lot during school. But, it wasnt until some of the "popular" kids saw my drawings one day, they stopped teasing me.

I wanted to become an artist when I was about 15. I studied art in high school and didn't do very well at all. I was good at drawing, but I had no emotion or meaning in any of my artworks. I decided that I was not talented and gave up.

After a few years of unemployment, I suffered from depression, I had always been depressed to some degree, but it seemed to get much worse. In 2005, I got a part in a play and had a small exhibition in the foyer during the run of the play. The play was a success, but my drawings seemed to go unnoticed. Or so I thought...

I got a text message from the director while I was having a few beers at the pub. She told me that someone was interested in buying one of my artworks. I was shocked, yet happy. I couldn't believe that somebody was willing to give me money for something I had made. But, I soon realised, it wasnt the money that made me happy, it was the fact that my art meant so much to this person.

After that, I decided that maybe I could be better at art. I enrolled in tafe to study fine arts. I also entered my first art competition in April 2006. The thirroul Seaside and arts festival chose two of my three entries. things were going well, until My depression came back, worse than before. I had to drop out of tafe and I rented out an art studio For a few months.

After a rather lengthy creative block, and several other mishaps such as being bashed and robbed. I found out that I had been selected to be a part of Wollongong city art gallery's mentoring program. It is a huge opportunity and Im well on my way to becoming what I want to be.

The story has just begun...