Mariella Rauhala

Animals have always played a part in my life,  and especially after moving the countryside I have been able to gather influences from fairy-tale-like everyday life. I draw from everything I can. Observation leads to another, encounters a memory and gives birth to a new one. Despite their names, my images are ambiguous and familiar: happy, wild and serious all at the same time. They arise from the need to tell stories, where combining of visual art and design seems like the natural medium.

In my mixed media, I combine photography, painting and computer-aided image processing. Finished images are printed digitally with durable and eco-friendly reactive inks on cotton canvas.

My canvas pieces have been in exhibitions since 2017.  I have also worked, for a long time, as a tv- and movie costume designer and as a design teacher.

I live and work in Kuhmoinen, the southernmost municipality in Central Finland, on the shores of Lake Päijänne.