This project and workshop was led by artist/designer Erika Kelter, who was meant to be here doing our residency in February and March along with her husband – designer/goldsmith Henri Ruut. Erika had been hoping to do a pulla portrait workshop in person while here, but as their residency had to be postponed, we decided to move it online. They are still hoping to come to Sointula to do our residency at some point in the future, so this online version will be a great introduction in the meantime!
Erika and Henri are currently based in Seattle, where they moved several years ago from Fiskars, Finland. They describe Fiskars as a small town of 650 people that is somewhat of a utopian community of its own, and while there Erika ran the Fiskars Artist Residency program – so you can see why we thought they’d be a great fit to do our residency here.
Erika started her pulla portrait project in Fiskars, where she asked locals to bake self-portraits in pulla
(for people not from Sointula or Finland, pulla is a traditional Finnish sweet bread). This Sointula/online version of the project will be an extention of her earlier versions, so our pulla portraits can be seen in conversation with the ones made by folks in Fiskars.
