Maija is my greatest friend since..always. Maija has an incredibly interesting and mysterious inner life. Everyone who is around her becomes fascinated with this lovely, inward looking woman from Finland with her small, black star’ eyes and soft and gentle voice. Looking at her art is like swimming for the soul. The delicate yet ‘significant’ plants in Maija’s paintings constitute a huge and developing herbarium and is her visual vocabulary.
Although most critics and viewers see her motifs as plants, Maija’s created ‘things’ are not necessarily plants but creatures, shadows, water, natural formations, form, colour, all approximations of her own truth, stemming from her strong connection to life. How else explain it? The variations are endless, streaming out to us from Maija’s generous source/well of emotional engagement and ardor. Year after year she keeps her direction, follows her road. She seems to always be on her road, regardless of what happens around her, in real life. Maybe for Maija the richness of her inner life is more real than reality. Her art is her generous invitation to us to share her world. For as long as I have known Maija, 3o years now she has not hesitated, veered, vacillated, put her brush down for more than a couple of days. Thank you Maija.