ANSSI JÄÄSKELÄINENDrawings 8.5.2003 – 1.6.2003

I find it difficult to say anything of a general nature of my work or my methods. My works of art are individuals, and the underlying origins and stories hidden within them differ vastly from each other - if they ever existed in the first place.

By this, I mean to say that I enjoy drawing on associations that I cannot justify by rational means, even to myself. In my view, art is a form of freedom that enables anything to become possible. Should freedom require justification? I could well be described as a man who does not always know what he is doing.

For me, two good reasons for creating images are working and passing time. We all have a life that needs to be lived, and we all need to have something to do during our lives lest we lose our minds. For me, that "something to do" translates into creating images. It seems to me "the most sensible thing to do". In other words, art acts as a life preserver. The discipline necessary for creating art has saved me, kept me in my right mind.

A successfully completed work of course also endows its creator with a certain sense of power and freedom that is hard to explain; just something that allows the mind to float above all that is unnecessary or trivial. The sensation is so overwhelming that it becomes worth pursuing, something to aspire to. It becomes a motive to carry on with the work - an issue of even greater importance in light of the fact that in other respects, my everyday life is rather ho-hum and uninteresting.

Anssi Jääskeläinen