I have liked the idea of steampunk ever since I first saw the cover of the ELP album Tarkus. I was maybe 12 then. I didn’t understand much of the music, but I remember being impressed by the really weird idea of battling semi-organic animals on the inner sleeve. To
Tempera
Those of you who paint and have never tried tempera: it is high time you tried. It’s not a perfect medium but in my view, it beats acrylic paint quite easily and is probably cheaper if you paint large canvases and know where to buy your materials. The flip side
Fairy tales
Cyclops and Aladdin’s lamp, right? I tend to think so. I chose the easy-going colours on purpose to undermine the mood of a potentially disturbing painting. Apparently the cyclops has lost one of his eyes to the genie in the lamp… but that looks like a more modern oil lamp
Quantum Chess and I
I have been playing chess more or less regularly for 17 years now. I never was very good at it, and I’m not hoping to be; the game is interesting enough nevertheless, luckily. I sometimes dreamed of a game that has strategic ideas similar to those in chess – with
Looking up to Frank Frazetta
I first saw the late Frank Frazetta’s work on the covers of the Creepy magazines (in Finnish it was called Shokki) when I was seven years old, back in 1972. Of course I didn’t know who Frazetta was, and I had no way of forming any kind of opinion, except
Surrealism and I
I was learning to play the piano – quite unsuccesfully – when I was ten years old. The teacher, one Päivö Somerma, was interested in Salvador Dalí’s work. When he realized I wasn’t going to learn much, he started spending the lesson time the way I wanted – which was
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