Hi there! It’s quite difficult to say exactly who or what I am. I guess the traditional way is to state that I am a firmly midde-aged Finnish man who is a proud father, a passionate digital artist and an experienced software developer. But I’m also a part time farmer, a bibliophile and a gamer, to name just a few of my interests. How exactly does one measure a person? I guess I’ll just tell you a little about how I got here.

As a child I spent a lot of time alone. I wasn’t lonely or anything, I just enjoyed being by myself. I read an inordinate number of books from an relatively early age and that is the thing I remember best from my childhood. I can clearly recall the hot summer days I spent lying in our summer houses attic reading some science fiction novel and imagining how it would feel like to live in its world. I was a creative person even then, but my creative tendencies were more literary in nature at that time. I penned short stories like the ones I had read about; fantasy and science fiction in all their colors. My biggest influences at that age were definitely the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin and the various series of Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially his Barsoom books.

I was also extremely interested in the role-playing games my older brother played. We have a pretty significant age difference so I was never included in his activities, but I got to peruse his AD&D books and the imagery really lighted my fire. At the time I didn’t read or write English, but I sat with a dictionary in hand and read through the books word by word. At length I just appropriated my brothers books and RPG’s were a big part of my teenage life.

In my teens my parents also decided that we were going to be a modern family and they bought us a personal computer; the (in)famous Sinclair ZX Spectrum. This introduced me to my other love: computers. I was immediately enthralled by what the little computer allowed me to do, namely to participate in the worlds designed by the game developers. For sure the graphics of that time were crude and the games mostly simple, but my imagination conjured up the vistas that the graphics only suggested. I used to pester my mother into buying me a copy of the Computer & Video Games magazine whenever we went to the big book stores.

Those magazines were an integral part of my youth and I still smile thinking of the way the artists illustrated the game articles. Half of the idea of a game came from illustrations and only half from the actual game graphics. And these were illustrators of the magazine, not something produced by the game publisher. Imagine if each online publication would do in-house illustrations for the newest Call of Duty? Someone at Activision would bust a vein just for the thought of it. Oh, those were good times.

I still feel that art is often better when some things are left for the viewers imagination to fill in. I guess I simply lean towards a somewhat impressionist view and don’t feel everything needs to be super detailed and lifelike. I wonder if this is because in my youth I had to use my imagination to see the fantastic. Books created worlds and computer games brought them to life after a fashion, but most of the visualization still happened in my head. If your choice game depicts you as the @ character and the Balrog as capical B, and you still live through the battle in vivid detail there just has to be some heavy lifting going on in your imagination. That’s Moria on the right by the way, a roguelike game from the 80’s. Look it up, it’s great.

As years went on and my enthusiasm for computers was ever evident I eventually got better computers like the Amiga 500 and this path led to the IBM PC compatibles we use even today. I guess my career in software development can be traced to this time of my life. I still sit in front of a computer most of every day. Is that sad? I don’t think so.

Teen aged me was also introduced to miniature gaming through role-playing games. From the start the whole point of miniature games to me was simply painting the figures. Gaming with them was almost a side thought. I wholeheartedly dove into painting the little buggers and did my best to learn everything possible related to the hobby. This was perhaps my first foray into the visual arts when it comes to actually creating things myself. I loved turning little grey figures into something that almost felt alive.

I consumed a lot of fantasy and scifi art through whatever channel I could. Artists like Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo could be found on the covers of the books I read and the music albums I listened to. The game books were illustrated by the likes of Jeff Easley, John Blanche and John Sibbick. These are just a few of the artists who had a profound influence on my young mind.

After highschool I did my military service and during that time I met my future wife. We both started our studies and life sort of took over my hobbies. I did continue computer gaming, but otherwise my hobbies got sidelined by all the usual stuff people in their twenties do. We both got careers and I worked in various positions in software development through the years. Software development is a job I really like so I can’t complain about it too much. Let’s just say it took over my life for a long time.

Eventually we did settle down on a homestead next to my wife’s childhood home farm and started raising children. When the busiest toddler years had passed I managed to pick up my hobbies once again. I resumed my miniature painting and did some traditional painting too. It felt really good to be creating things again. I soon started combining my two passions and went digital on my art.

This is pretty much where I’m at today. Tools have gotten a lot better over the years and there is a profusion of imagery online nowadays. The advent of AI in generating art seems both exciting and scary. It certainly feels like a great time to be creating digital things.

Oh, did I mention that we live on a homestead? Yeah, I’m now also a farmer it seems. We’ve got the usual dog and cats, had a horse, and there’s also the chicken and a herd of sheep to occupy my time. I must admit that there’s something incredibly satisfying about physical labour; in working with the plants and animals. It keeps me grounded and connected to the nature, which feels important in today’s fast-paced digital age. Although having the possibility to listen to your favorite audio books while shoveling manure is also pretty nice.

So, that’s me in a nutshell! A digital artist, software developer, father, and farmer. I guess I’m a lot of things. I’m also always exploring new ways to combine my passions and create something truly unique.