Haapsalu

Transitions Between Residencies

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My last days in Pärnu were bittersweet, as I really enjoyed my time there and had two paintings in-progress when I left as well as many more in mind. I was also going to miss my fellow artist-in-residence Akie! Pictured is the feast she made for us to send me off - it was so delicious. (For any of the cropped images below, you can click in and page through the larger, uncropped versions.)

But the days slipped past and soon I was heading to Haapsalu, where I wanted to see the Haapsalu Lace Museum. Unfortunately for me, it turned out that despite what it said online (which I believe was intentionally misleading), the museum was closed for renovations and the address and listing was changed to that of the museum’s mall storefront. I still got to see beautiful examples of the prized bobble lace shawls and other wearables, and though these were all woolen and extremely expensive (due to the ridiculous amount of labor involved in the production), there were some more affordable stiffened lace doilies for sale. I picked a few up as gifts.

Though that was a bust, I did enjoy touring the Haapsalu castle ruins, old train station, and the bay!

Then I moved on to Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa, as they were having what they advertised as a three-day festival “Saarte Art Fest” with a large arts market featuring dozens of contemporary artists from all of Estonia. That, too, was extremely misleading; the arts market had four total new vendors, and a couple nearby galleries brought their wares out as well (which I had already seen in their own spaces). My recommendation is not to visit Kuressaare for these types of festivals; but there were two cool points of interest that made the visit worthwhile anyway, in addition to general Kuressaare wanderings. The first was a bus ride out to Kaali Crater. Technically there are nine meteorite craters in the town of Kaali, but most are very small and difficult to discern from normal topography. One, however, is more obvious!

The top tier highlight of Kuressaare was visiting Saare KEK, a museum about life under Soviet occupation. I’m not sure I would have visited if not for my research into Pärnu KEK and the ENSV - but that would have been a huge shame; it was one of my favorite museum visits globally, ever. Its usage of perfokaart borders for all informational signage as clear iconography of the era was really validating of my using it as the substrate for Surveillance. Note that in the snippets of professions, teachers usually “acquired” as in took from their job and used, traded, or sold perfokaart (punch cards) - so it’s especially apropos that I was instantly drawn to it!

I also learned of new material I might be able to incorporate into my work: women’s fashion and craft magazines like Siluett.

I made my way back to Tallinn and spent a day with my friend and colleague Anni Moore - visiting Balti Jaam market, KUMU, and the Birgitta Convent Ruins - before flying to my next residency in Berlin!

My First Days in the Baltics - Helsinki, Tallinn, Western Estonia

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I flew into Helsinki, Finland; when I was looking at my flights, I saw they all routed through Helsinki to Tallinn. Since I knew I wanted to visit it during my stay, I figured I’d save on time and ferry costs if I just landed in Helsinki to begin with and then ferried down to Tallinn after a couple of days.

In Helsinki, I visited two different museums (the Architecture and Design Museum and Amos Rex), Temppeliaukio Church, and checked out Hietalahti flea market, Market Square, Old Market Hall), and the Design District. I was lucky enough to get to visit Amos Rex with a former student of mine who was also in Helsinki, so that was quite cool! As I was seeing all the arts and crafts, I noted how much knitting, crocheting, fiber arts, fabrics, and fashion are a part of the design landscape here - particularly that of women. I decided I want to lean into that for my own artwork.

Some general takeaways from Helsinki - the downtown and all associated destinations felt more contained and smaller than I anticipated. There is pretty clearly a decent vegan and vegetarian scene. The tram system is really nice. For whatever reason, Helsinki is like Japan wherein they give you the smallest of cups even for water, so you have to ask for refills constantly. Or you just outright have to pay for water, and even then it’s a tiny bottle. I much prefer the US’s large glass of free tap water approach.

After I was done touring Helsinki, I took the Tallink ferry down from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia. The ferry was absolutely enormous, and fortunately it did not set off any significant motion sickness. Once in Tallinn, I hauled my luggage from the port terminal to my hotel and set off on an evening walking loop of the Old Town. Note the seagull-man standoff; they were arguing about whose dinner it was that the man was trying to consume.

The next morning, I headed to Karnaluks OÜ to check out fabric and ribbon options, and had lunch in Tallinn before catching a bus down to Pärnu. After I arrived, I met with the residency directors Taje Tross and Al Paldrok, and they showed me the ins and outs of the residency and nearby neighborhood. I popped out to grab some groceries and then met up for dinner with Marko Poolamets, a Renaissance man. Amongst his many professions, he serves as a nature photographer and tour guide; I had booked the next day with him and his gear. He is also a university professor of marketing, an oral history interviewer, sits on the board of two museums, does environmental science work…

The next morning, Marko and I woke up quite early and went out for a long, delightful day of mostly birding (we were open to other species too, but the birds are plentiful here!). It was lovely to work with him and to get to borrow his gear, including his spotting scope with phone attachment. We spent a full twelve hours touring around a chunk of western Estonia including Matsalu and Haapsalu.

Then the rest of that first week I spent in the studio!