LEMON DIFFICULT – Jonna Lepistö

I am Jonna Lepistö, a visual artist from Pori. I graduated from Kankaanpää School of Fine Arts in 2016.

My exhibition, Lemon Difficult, explores the occasional difficulty of all things, as well as the contradictory ways in which people relate to the reality around them. Life is sometimes hard, and along the way, we inevitably adopt harmful patterns and destructive habits that make survival even more challenging. Many people struggle to find purpose and meaning in their lives.

It seems that in today’s culture of success, people have trouble keeping up, and as a reaction, they develop their own problems—issues that, in turn, create even more obstacles in navigating life’s complexities. The difficulty of starting something, fitting in, the endless choices, decision-making struggles, and the overwhelming abundance of products and advertisements can easily lead to paralysis. Thoughts become tangled in a world of unevenly distributed rights, power, and excess. The injustices of society and the occasional absurdity of human behavior can be bewildering. Painting allows me to process the chaos of everyday life, bringing clarity and peace of mind.

The irrationality and disorder of my paintings offer a strange sense of comfort and stability in the chaotic mess we call life. These paintings tell stories about people whose voices are not always heard. Amidst it all, there is still a glimmer of hope—those small, everyday moments that remind us: Maybe things will be okay after all.

“When you thought that everything would be easy peasy lemon squeezy, but it’s actually difficult difficult lemon difficult.”

Translated with ChatGPT