Anna Emilia Laitinen

Artist Bio:

In 1983, I was born in Leppävirta, a small town in Finland with strawberry fields, lakes and pine forests. There I built huts out of branches with friends and my brother, listened to stories from tapes and drew, cut and glued paper. One summer we found Melancholy thistle flowers which we used as painting brushes.

I moved to Iceland in 2004. In the tiny town of Dalvík, I followed the year passing in the valley, mountains and the sea. I worked in a kindergarten, painting and drawing with the children. There were no trees but an open sky and the sea amazed me. I went back to Finland to continue my studies in graphic design focusing on illustration. The summers I kept spending in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Now I live in Finland, still marveling at all the trees growing here. The weather gives the color to my paintings. When I paint I think of all the far places the wind reaches and hope to hear from them. I enjoy finding connections between nature and the ones living in it, collecting them as memories on a soft cotton paper.

Anna Emilia’s Website