Merja Ranki:
In the beginning I was filled with untold stories. Then, years later, the stories became louder and they crawled over me. I gave myself the right to let them breathe. I decided to honor my life. Be a storyteller, an artist.
This decision fills me constantly with intensive joy and satisfaction, harmony with all my passions.
I work with intuition, trying to free my mind from observing. The feeling of power with physical work and the search for the utmost variety of extremes fascinates me, from joy to grief, tenderness to cruelty, love to hate, all the life-supporting forces. I am inspired by materials. Concrete, glass, bronze, plastics as well as organic materials clay, textiles, wood have been an exciting adventure for me. In my latest works I have been combining reality and dreams and the conflict between them.
I aspire to humble honesty to make my works reach a state of being immediate mediums between experiences, a path between experimenter and observer, a key to feel movement in one´s mind, a pace, a sigh, a glimpse, a touch to ones humanity.