Carina Söderström has been awarded with The Tellervo Tikkanen’s scholarship for the Swedish-Finnish artist of the year 2017.
Her work can be found as well in schools, preschools and homes for the elderly, Sundbyberg town hall and other public institutions as in private homes.
The artist has been shown in single and group exhibitions in Sweden and other countries in Europe. In Sweden: Stockholm, Sundbyberg, Nyköping, Eskilstuna, Visby and Sigtuna. Abroad in: Milano, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Basel (online) to mention some.
Mighty mountain’s sigh – Carina Söderström
“More and more I feel the connection and harmony between nature and me, my own body. Feeling the roots of the trees as a charter to my history, trunk, branches and their foliage growing out of my fingers. I breathe bigger and deeper during a big and hot summer rain.
I am at my most free when seawater surrounds and carries me.
My painting moves in that direction, more of spirituality, depth and mystery.
It is the movements of my body together with the traces of the colors on the canvas that want to express the non-material bond between nature and man, between on the one hand body and on the other hand intuition, feelings and what cannot be expressed in words”. (Carina Söderström).
source I get ideas and inspiration from mostly. Nature in all it’s forms is a source to my
artistry, such as the movement of water and the feeling of how the sky meets the sea and
the complete balance between perfect forms and lively lines. However, the most
fundamental thing in my practice is that I try to reach the soul of what I render, in the color
itself and behind the surface. I am captivated by the warm and cold shifts of colors in
relation to each other and can immerse myself deeply in the infinite variety and
changeability that all living things carry. The big existential questions always speak to me.
What it means to be human, the essence of being. (C.S.)
My artistry has recently moved between enigmatic abstract expression and into immersing myself in a rocks’ shape, movement and existence.
Then I started to reflect on traumas of our ancestors and how we can try to heal them. My
grandmother came to my mind and the way she pushed herself through several personal
and worldly traumas in such a strong and persistent way! She was born in Finland 1900 and
was my solid rock until she died at old age. As I was thinking of the strength of the women
in my family, they started to emerge amongst the rocks on my canvas. One by one, telling
me about all the pains and sorrows that have washed through history. One says that
someone is a rock when they stay by your side in difficult times.
That is what happens in my art at the present, the women become one with the stone. For
me as the receiver and the one that is making form out of it, a rather heavy process. But
furthermore a katharsis. (C.S.)
Merge with history – Carina Söderström
Carina Söderström
@carinasoderstromart
Website or portfolio: www.artworks.se