In 2019 I was invited to participate in a world portrait exhibition to celebrate women who inspire us today. I had moved to Åland in 2018 and was beginning to learn about life in Finland. I had just begun researching strong women in Finland when friends on Åland suggested President Halonen to me.
My research on President Halonen captivated my attention. President Halonen is an inspirational figure as the first female President of Finland as well as a significant, strong and admired person. I am inspired by her fighting spirit and especially by her clear voice for women world wide, for fighting for female justice, for gender equality and for human rights in general. She is an influential advocate for the environment and has a global approach to building a future based on sustainable development and climate change, all of which are close to my heart. I was extremely pleased when President Halonen agreed to work with me on this project.
Our first number of sessions began in her Helsinki office during a week in autumn of 2019.
I travelled to Australia for the Christmas period in 2019 planning to return in early 2020. This is when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Australia went into lock down. I wasn’t able to return to Finland for almost a year. We reignited the project in 2021 after vaccinations for all was in place. I went back to visit President Halonen in Helsinki to develop the concept further. Too much time had passed, and it was like a fresh beginning. This turned out to be the most significant time. Nothing was lost and revisiting her injected new energy into the portrait conceptually, while also advancing my knowledge of her physiology.
Once I am sure of the concept and have decided on the composition of the portrait it is time for my subject to sit for me in the studio. President Halonen came to my studio and we met daily for several days. During this time I began to work on the two portraits. I completed them over the following couple of months.
The next phase, and the most nervous phase for me, is to witness the subject’s reaction to the work. Perhaps I had built it up in my mind, but I was concerned and much more nervous this time than compared to all my previous portrait revealing combined. It is always difficult to see oneself represented through someone else’s eyes, even more so when the images are presented in the form of two larger than life portraits. We are generally only used to seeing ourselves in the mirror or in photographs.
In my eyes, both portraits represent aspects of Tarja Halonen. The smaller of the two portraits represent a personable, kind and open portrait of Tarja Halonen. The larger portrait, that I have chosen to call The Activist, after her book recently published about her grandmother, her mother and herself. Three generations of strong women. To me, The Activist represents Tarja Halonen’s strength, intelligence, humour and her readiness to stand up for a cause. Both paintings are similar but deliver different messages.
Please note the article linked below is presented in Swedish.
