NUVOLETTA – Verna Joki

“All the while, Vesuvius was visible on the left side of the road, billowing vast amounts of smoke, and I rejoiced inwardly when I could finally witness this wondrous sight with my own eyes.” Thus wrote Goethe in his Italian Journey diary. Like other 18th-century gentlemen travelers, Goethe documented his impressions of Italy’s landscapes and everyday life not only in words but also in ink drawings and watercolors.

Drawing is a way of experiencing and capturing a landscape and a moment. Goethe depicted the eruption of Vesuvius, a sublime spectacle. However, life in general is the opposite of a spectacle. Alongside classical landscapes, the subject of an ink drawing can just as well be the mundane and lived experience: household objects, an artist friend’s studio, a bed marked by the traces of life. The everyday material environment can be appreciated through the act of drawing. Making paper by hand can also be a part of contemplating materiality.

The relationship between ink and brush is symbiotic: ink needs the brush to come alive. These are unforgiving tools, as mistakes cannot be corrected afterward. The process is intense and requires focus. Around the act of drawing, there must be room and time for other things—reading, thinking, living everyday life.

Eye, hand, brush, ink, paper. Then the eye again. It is, in a way, a miracle that perception transforms into an image-space on paper, appearing and dissolving as one observes. A drawing is a trace of a moment: I was here, I lived this moment.

Katja Matikainen

Verna Joki graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2021 and as a painter from the Free Art School in 2017.

Joki has held several solo exhibitions in Finland, most recently at Oksasenkatu 11 Gallery in Helsinki in 2023. After Poriginal, her next exhibition will take place at the Art Center Mältinranta in the summer of 2023.

Her works are included in the Finnish State Art Collection.

Translated with ChatGPT