Midsummer Arts Festival this Sunday!

This is the poster my sister, Katja, and me made up a few years ago that we use as our template each year for the Midsummer/Juhannus art exhibit that we have put on for about 4 years now (last year we did not, though, because I was in Puebla, Mexico for 3 weeks in June). We found an old piece of birch bark at the Cascades and used it as our birch tree. That old weathered strip of bark was lying on the ground just waiting for us. We had been frantically thinking about what to put on the poster and we needed it done...yesterday. So, the birch bark presented itself to us. The birch leaves are from a tree in my mom's yard. The blue mountain on the horizon is the foot of Nanabijou, aka The Sleeping Giant. The blue water is Lake Superior.

This year our festival is on Sunday the 22nd. My sister, Katja, and our friend, Kaija, both artists, have helped organize this summer celebration at the Finlandia hall on Bay St. The Hall will be full of art and artists, most of Finnish descent, but some friends of Finns! I will post some photos after Sunday of our event. Performances begin at 1:30. This year, Tiina Heimonen, playing the kantele, and Lars Hogard, playing mandolin and guitar, both part of Revon Tulet [Northern Lights], will play a set. They are AMAZING. Kalle Kauranen will play kantele. Kyllikki Parkkari will read summertime poetry. Kyllikki and I will also read an old Finnish poem together; she will read Juhannus by Einari Vuorela in Finnish; I will translate it to English. Martti Ahonen will sing. Urho will play haitari [accordion]. Aisa Kuper will play fiddle. Sebastian Skaf will play piano. Tuomas Minore may play piano. ...I think that's it?.....

Painted chairs depicting Finnish ancestry, local neighbourhood history and cultures, and summertime gardens will fill the empty corner lot of Bay and Algoma Streets with colour! Women from the Willow Springs Creative Centre will be in the Midsummer Garden-to-be lot to unveil the draft garden design. They will also assist anyone who wishes to make a mosaic patio stone! Let's hope it doesn't rain....

This is the image that Katja* created from lilies in my garden and an old photo of the Finnish Labour Temple (now called the Finlandia Club; aka big Finn Hall). With the help of Pat McCartney, of Custom Large Format printing, we created invitations to our Midsummer Art festival that we sent out to folks in town! We also had this image made into excellent quality laminated postcards. They cost $2 (plus $52c postage). Send me an email if you would like one!

* Katja is in the process of making a website, so check back. She will have amazing photo art for sale.