Biography




Carol Kajorinne (HBFA) is an emerging, multidisciplinary artist living in Robinson Superior Treaty, just north of Thunder Bay on land her Finnish ancestors homesteaded in the early 1920’s. Kajorinne has been working as an arts educator since 2010, a program coordinator since 2012, and in 2017 accepted the position of Artistic Director with CAHEP (Community Arts and Heritage Education Project).  In 2012 she was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Northern Arts grant for the Preserving Harold Project, which was part of a two-person exhibition Preservation | Desire to Fill at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in 2015 and is currently on tour with the Manitoba Arts Network. Kajorinne has received numerous grants and is a founding member of Thunder Giant Metalsmith Guild and Satellite Studio Artist Collective, which in 2014 received an OAC Visual Arts Project grant for “4 By 4,” and in 2015 designed the “Art Bus” for the City of Thunder Bay. In 2015 she became a core team member of YSI (Youth Social Infrastructure Collaborative) in effort to build a resilient and equitable youth sector.
  
Mixed media artwork on mylar by a student at St. Margaret School.
Learners explored various mediums and were encouraged to work on both sides of the paper, and to create three-dimensional elements. They looked brilliant displayed in the classroom windows and at the Forest of Reading Festival! 

 Cahep Interview:  http://cahep.ca/meet-artist-carol-kajorinne/

Artist Statement

           My heritage and the lands my Finnish ancestors have inhabited for five generations is a vital part of my experience, and greatly influences my artistic practice. In addition to heritage and preservation, I explore themes of life cycles and rebirth – how we are all comprised of the same elements and are vulnerable to the currents of change.  My artistic process is emotionally driven, incorporating various mediums including forged metal, found objects, photographs, and light; and my physical relationship with the methods selected is integral to my practice. The method of blacksmithing relates to themes of rebirth and connection, as all elements (water, air, earth, fire) are required when transforming steel. I began exploring these themes through a documentary process in “Self Portrait as a Sauna Stove” (2010), and later in the “Preservation Project” (funded by the OAC in 2012-13).

Carol Kajorinne:
A JOURNEY TOWARDS METAL
"Morning (a bird, a tree)" acrylic and willow charcoal on canvas.

I grew up painting and drawing, and studied both throughout completing my Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Lakehead University.  Once I was introduced to sculpture, everything changed.  I realized sculpture as a place where all art forms and ideas converge -- you could do anything!  I also grew up watching my Father weld large scale projects and operating backhoes, so naturally I envision creating large works.  Sculpture is physically demanding, feels natural and exciting.

"Willows" welded steel.
      After completing my degree, I went back to my ten-year summer job: Flagging for road construction. Working on back-country roads provided me a chance to draw or read.  Carrying my sketchbook, my drawings were always of what surrounded me: Trees.  Slowly reducing their shape, the drawings became more of an essence of growth and movement with a strong focus on rhythm. At the time I was also intensively studying piano and exploring the circular motions my hands make.  Nevertheless these motions began to dance across the sketchbook page as I created simple line drawings of "Willows". Finding the drawings too simple, I transformed a sketch into a steel drawing. Not caring for the metal background, I transformed the idea into a three-dimensional sketch of a hanging tree branch with a similar essence ("A Branch Between You and the Sun"). Working with fibre at the time and having seen an exhibit by Kai Chan (A Spiders Logic) at the Textile Museum of Canada inspired me to incorporate threads with my metalwork (first in "Connection" -showcased at DefSup's Members Show & then in "A Branch Between You and The Sun").  I was drawn to the immediacy and breath-like quality of the silk moving and reacting to the audience in Chan's work.  My metal Branch resembled a tree but also appeared as roots and I enjoy the ambiguity of what else it may appear to be.  When working on The Preserving Harold Project (a body of work funded by the OAC), I began to wrap a "Jar of Pickles" and "Ceramic Pieces" in these same roots.  For me, the forged metal roots or the stings that hang off the Branch resemble the invisible connections that hold everything together.

"A Branch Between (You and the Sun)" steel, thread.
      I enjoy creating functional artwork such as welding steel mirrors and love the organic nature blacksmithing provides.  I study Blacksmithing from Dave Hansen of the Duluth area and have gotten my boyfriend Kriev obsessed with the art form as well.  We call ourselves "Pike Lake Forge"; a homage to my (late) 93 year old Mummu.  We love venturing to Blacksmithing conferences and visiting other smiths.  My ultimate goal is to learn Bronze Casting and in the meantime I aspire to create large outdoor sculptures.  

"Flora" steel mirror. Currently for sale at Gallery 33, Thunder Bay.

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