November Featured Artist I - Outi Harma
By Kris Leigh Townsend
Finnish artist Outi Harma creates brightly colored visual pieces that are a vulnerable exclamation of the feminine spirit. Her compositions move whimsically as if to dance across the still page, mirroring her love of improvisational movement and the process of growing as a woman. Outi describes her creative process as instinctual and explorational. She has no expectations and instead allows the flow of creativity to glide through her and onto the canvas. She says, “I want to be surprised by what comes, it makes it more interesting... I have a struggle there in the middle where I don’t know what’s happening and I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I think through the struggle I always find something new.”
The relationship she has with creating art seems to be almost conversational. She begins by playing with color and stays curious, providing space for characters to unfold and reveal themselves in front of her. The women she paints develop their own personality and possess a strong sense of freedom. Outi says, “Those women are very powerful in a way, and I feel that when I’m painting. So, they’re kind of teaching me also.”
As this Art Walk’s poster artist, Outi expressed support of this MVAW’s “Shop Local theme”. Being a local business owner in a world of online shopping, she says she inspires to “support the cause of community and people coming together.”
Check out the next Mar Vista Music & Art Walk, featuring Outi’s “Queen of Ceasefire” on the poster!
![facebookEvent_coverphoto[FINAL].png](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58484ee003596e3d13e4c6ce/1572394282401-4Q1I8EPJMTGEGY874CM3/facebookEvent_coverphoto%5BFINAL%5D.png)
—
Kris Townsend is a musician and writer in Los Angeles.
heykrisleigh@gmail.com