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Design Nation Meets Art Nation

by Honey Stone
04/23/17
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I was closely aligned with my Finnish subculture up until I moved away to college. As I began to merge more with my American main culture, I began to despise most of my Finnish upbringing yet I just wasn’t loving American culture. I think this happens to a lot of bi-cultural people. I have always found my ethnic-group language to be homely in sound, and the group mentality to be overly practical.

To the surprise of no one, I entered the more practical artistic field of interior design. When I failed a drafting class, the teacher pointed out how much more effort I put into the drawing of the people rather than in the architectural blueprint lines - which were supposed to be the focus. It was a redirection though I cried as if I lost a lover. There has been a lot of drama in my artist development. I am only learning now that what I thought was failure was simply the wrong stone-to-step-on while crossing the creek to my destiny.

I turned to my second major choice of illustration – still practical. But that’s when I went on a search for things to like about the Finnish culture. I came across the good, bad and ugly. I started by reading some of the literature and found that the national epic, called The Kalevela, was essentially about witchcraft. It was like Harry Potter becoming a national hero through the collective stories told around a campfire.  But really, within that, was a nugget of the symbol of the Finnish people; the historical theme of the nation as the salmon swimming upstream which connects with the untranslatable Finnish word “sisu.” Finns are much like the Jews in how they have held onto their culture despite constant invasion from other nations. Finland had been dominated by Russia, Denmark and Sweden.

The theme of looking for patterns in cultures actually is in tune with my calling of understanding the spiritual atmosphere of regions and people groups. It can get down to the micro-level of individuals as well, but that’s not as interesting to me. I even look at churches as cultures with certain values being stressed. They all have their quirks, blessings, and the other thing.

I read a second classic book written by a Finn, and was devastating because it took the Lord’s name in vain on almost every page. I concluded that there’s not a lot of godliness in Finnish literature. In fact, most of the finer side of their art came in from other ethnicities moving in to help this struggling culture. Such is the case with Elias Lonnrot’s Kalevala. Other times outsiders came into the culture for inspiration as in the music of Sibelius’ Finlandia. Even the world-known, youth novels of the Moomins was inspired by a Swede living in Finland. That was kind of disappointing.

I invited a guy that I dated into my apartment and he looked around and said, “You’re not very Finnish.” He had formerly dated a Finnish gal and relayed to me his knowledge of the typical Finnish practicality. I had always felt the undercurrent of cultural conflict but then again the Finns value independence and so that helped a little. My apartment was full of framed impressionist and expressionist prints of unknown yet gifted artists. Reason being, I had worked in a frame shop and handled so much of the popular and master artists that I just didn’t like anything mainstream. Plus I got some free frames. Clue number #37, I was not a typical Finn.

The Finns are not legendary in the fine arts but they are exceptional in design and I call their style “sophisticated fun.” In 2012 Helsinki, Finland was called the “design capital of the world.” Since then they have called themselves a “design nation.” For such a small nation they have won a boat-load of design awards. They have a knack for the more practical arts such as architecture, graphic design, fabric design, glassware (because of the ice), ceramics and jewelry. It makes sense because they were peasants for most of their existence. They just can’t get away from that Northern European idea of “form and function.” Plus, they are an introverted group and so I suppose that lends itself to creative expression in the more nonverbal forms. So, now we’ve hit upon my favorite Finnish affinities which are introversion; bold and bright colors; nonverbal art forms, and simple-fantastical forms.

During another discovery-recovery time, God had me look through interior design magazines to discover my favorite style. I told him it was minimalism and he said, “Nope, that’s not it.” Modern Finnish design embraces a spacious and sparse look which I do like. I was describing to my well-traveled friend Emily what I like as far as décor and she said, “That’s called Baroque minimalism.” It was just a little bit of ornate with a minimalist foundation. The interior of her house looks like Steve Jobs vision. I thought, “Okay, God has me on a exploration of self-discovery of my original design.” In this search I was surprised to find that He is intentional and practical as well as whimsical and fanciful.

My Finnish church culture was extremely unique. The prophetic stream that it came from was called Laedstaedianism. It originates with a Swedish man named Lars Laestadias who came to Christ through a Sami gal (a people group who are like the Native Americans are to the U.S., or Eskimos to the Canadians). Sami are roaming reindeer herders of the very north of Europe.

Since there was only a verbal Finnish language at the time, and not a written on, salvation spread one by one through word-of-mouth. This explains the inspirational emphasis of my church of origin.  It is challenging for them to accept a Biblical word over an inspirational or revelational word. As a group they know how to flow in the Spirit, but as individuals, it just is not taught.

The sermons come from the reading of the Bible and if something opens up than the ministers go with that. But if it doesn’t, then the minister simply continues to read the Bible. When the Spirit leads the group, everything is bold; but when the Spirit is not moving there is the signature Finnish passivity.

Worship is only with the voice and not music. There is no harmony but only powerful emotional expression. This is one area that I deeply miss though I do find it from time to time. There is no such thing as soaking in the Finnish church. Dancing is either nothing or ecstatic. Yes, the Finns are definitely black and white. They are either on or off. They are either cold or hot, and yes they do interpret that scripture incorrectly. It is supposed to mean therapeutic or refreshing and not alive or dead. There is absolutely no art in the church but the architecture is absolutely sculptural.

The closest “American culture church” to my church of origin are the Quakers, and so I wanted to be one – a modern day one. I valued their wisdom and belief that you should simplify your life to focus on what’s important. They believe in the practice of listening and waiting for a word in their services. Even my wardrobe reflected a classic simplicity. But during my discovery time, I began to express myself through my accessories such as jewelry, scarves, hats, etc. I called that style “classic-creative.”

That theme came from my diet of mainly eating good food with a treat of sugar once a week. Again, my friend Emily said, “Your diet reminds me of the book French Women Don’t get Fat.” And from there I swam right into the “French women” current and splashed around a bit.

I fell in love – and I mean it – with the French because they love art and women. Imagine a culture like that. I could flourish in that atmosphere. The Finns actually are into equality of the sexes - as they were the first European country to allow women to vote. Their language is very gender-neutral which is the opposite of the French who have a male-ness and a female-ness ascribed to every person, place, or thing. The difference is that in the Finnish culture, women are valued but in the French culture they are celebrated. For that reason, they probably didn’t even need the right to vote.

American culture often sexualizes – objectifies – women and this is quite damaging because it becomes a competition of ideal proportions instead of the ‘artistic point of view’ which is sometimes about strange proportions, unique beauty, and the attractive but unusual. I must’ve always had an artistic eye because I was never a trend follower. In fact, I can be quite retarded in that way. I am either ahead of my time, or in my own time. Sometimes I lose track of time. Rarely am I in sync with the mainstream culture. This would make some people uncomfortable but for me it doesn’t feel right to look like everyone else all the time.

There is a cartoon picture that reflects this. It is a group of penguins with only one that has a colorful party hat. Most people say more conventional affirmations but God has me look in the mirror and repeat: I am the penguin with the party hat. If you look deeper into the meaning of the colors you will see that I am a black and white thinker but also a colorful thinker. This is so true in my mixture of discernment with the fun of art.

I have learned from my Finnish subculture a scarcity mentality (hence minimalism) and this conflicts with the mainstream American culture where there is excess. But in the French culture, there is an emphasis on “quality” in art, fashion, food, and enjoying life. There is a balance between discipline and pleasure.

I realize that I am romanticizing a culture I never visited, but it just led me to realize that there were better things out there than what I experienced. I may not fit the competitive American temperament with its rugged – plow everybody over - individualism but I do value the individualism part for the sake of style. There are pockets of my tribe here and there. And I am going to have to get used to standing out in the larger current. This isn’t necessarily bad because artists want to be unique, but my degree of introversion just doesn’t dig it. I can handle moments in the spotlight but keep me behind the scenes running things and I will be fine.

Some may call it rebellion, but I call it really understanding my preferences and an artist needs to do that to learn to express their style. My way is to find the inspiration points. For example, everyone loves the delicate and elegant red rose but I love the hot pink gerbera daisy which I see as stunning and radiant. Most favor the diamond because it is pure and clear but I love the rare blue opal which is actually more expensive, fanciful, deep and mysterious.

Most Finns like coffee but I choose tea. Most tea drinkers add sweetener and like it light. I drink grand keemen which is the least expensive of high the quality teas (the burgundy of teas) and I sample tea like a wine expert samples wine. Yes, I’m a tea snob-nerd and thank goodness nobody cares though I have irritated a few people on my pickiness. I’m known for saying about a restaurant, “Nope, we can’t go there, they don’t have good tea.”

I think it’s funny that God has drawn me to the art nation, which is France, and the design nation, which is Finland. I look forward to one day going to the Design District in Helsinki, Finland where I can visit the museums that show the development of my favorite Finnish designers of Iitala (glass), Marimekko (fabric), and Aarika (jewelry). Double vowels and consonants seem to be part of being a designer. In Helsinki, design is accessible to all, but in Paris, it is expected that you get into art or you may as well leave. If you go there and play video games all day long then you are just a dunce (random thought).

One day I will visit Paris and see what I call the Monet museum - as I have never lost interest in his lily pads. But maybe it’s because Claude uses my favorite color of purple-blue in all of its glory. I plan to eat some decadent desserts and people watch.

My writing style is even informed by the ideas of baroque (French romantic-beauty) and minimalism (Finnish-ness of clearly communicating the lovely essence). I really like to get down to easy-reading with words (basic ingredients) but then I like to go back and play around with literary (spices) and poetic (herbs) touches. It is something that God trained me to do and I discovered that is called literary journalism or creative nonfiction.

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