Ciao!

Phew! Once again, it´s been a while since last time I wrote something into my journal. But I like to gather some news and experiences to write a (relatively) long journal about them, instead of indifferent everyday crap.

So, it was july since my last journal... And since that, there have been lots of things happening in my life. Talking about life I am still alive after my bungee jump (duh). You know, ladies and gentlemen, I really recommend you to try a bungee jump, if you havent experienced one! Really! It was an extremely refreshing experience, in a sense of winning your fears of height, danger and death... The crane was 110 meters high and there was three of us who jumped (me, my girlfriend and a guy from work) and we all were videotaped. Unfrotunately I haven't put those clips in youtube yet, no matter that the jump date was August 5th. The jump was such an intense experience on a personal level, and I am happy that I made it. That's why I haven't had any urgent need to show my jump to the whole world. But don't worry, those clips will be published.

Another big move was that I moved from my old doghouse apartment to live with my lovely fiancée->[link]
(She's a sculptor too! )In summer I was spending so much time with her that I practically lived with her. So obviously there was no point to live in my old apartment anymore. This new arrangement is perfect. We put our expenses in half and save money. Also our apartment is basically in a centre of the city so my way to work is much shorter too!

And the best thing is that I can be with my precious one! Yup, she is my fiancée. I proposed her in October 28th and she said yes. I am so happy! Though our wedding day is not untill August 13th 2011. This is because there is this great old festival hall in a Suomenlinna, that we want to rent for our big day and there was not enough good dates in the booking list for us in 2010. One year and nine months.. But time flies, when you have fun. And we have lots to do in planning and executing our wedding. The theme in our wedding is marine environment with sand and sea shell decorations (no wedding clichés, like pink hearts etc. allowed!) and that's why we have to do some plaster casts of different kind of sea shells and paint them. Yup. We used our sculptural talents and took silicone molds of those sea shells. We shall see, how those shells turn out!

There are other things too, that keeps me busy. And those are for example building animal replicas for newest museum exhibition "Continents". The opening date is April 22nd 2010 and we're all busy in the museum. I have already made several tropical frog replicas and and sea birds. There will be some odds and ends to do before the opening. Unfortunately I don't have a permission to write about them more precisely before the opening date, not to mention about submitting pictures about them. During the building process of the last exhibition, I put some making of-photos of prehistoric amphibian here on DA and exhibition staff was pissed off. They said it would spoil the new exhibitions, blah blah. I think it's quite rigorous bullshit, because the number of finnish DA members are limited and it couldn't spoil the exhibitions in anyway. But remember April 22nd 2010. There will be lots of fancy stuff in my gallery!

I also have to do some scaled up-insect models for science center Vapriikki. Vapriikki is in Tampere (central-finland's biggest city) and I have to do commission works for them untill 2014. I am very happy about this offer. Unfortunately it's the same thing here, I cant't talk much about the details of the commissions.

I am also looking forward for the James Cameron's new scifi movie "Avatar". Or more precisely I am looking forward for the new 3D technology used in the film and the creatures in it. The plot of the movie is like a mixture of "Pocahontas", "Dances with wolves" and "Ferngully-The last rainforest", but the effects and the digital characters, which I have seen in the trailer looks stunningly good. How good they look in 3D cinema... That intrests me alot.

Also I am intersted about the creature design in the movie. Because I am sculptor, specialized in animals, that is the reason, why I am interested in creature design and I am critical about the plausibility of fantasy creatures. This may sound stupid - of course they are pure fantasy - but it is so easy to do some marvelous creatures and monsters beyond biological limits. Good design, which is made under biological or should I say under morphological limits is much harder, but it will reward the designer. What I have read about the creature design in Avatar, is that most of the creatures follows some kind of logic of morphology. There are two creatures in the film, which I want to turn into sculptures. They are "Thanator" and "Great Leonopteryx". If there is time, I try to make sculptures of them before the release date of the movie, which is December 18th 2009

All in all, I am living very interesting times.

See ya folks!!