A Modern Floral Tale
“I work intuitively when I build my floral works—flowers direct me quite often. They set the rules and I just play along.”
Words & Photography by Kreetta Järvenpää
I am the daughter of a flower and plant lover. We always had a garden and a huge amount of house plants. I have two older sisters and I remember how we were always photographed next to flowers by our mom. We were dressed well next to the flowers like roses in June or Dahlias in Autumn. I remember how, when we had a cleaning day, I had to wipe the dust from the huge house plant—an orange tree—in our living room. Now that same orange tree lives at my workspace; it is 56 years old. My mom grew it from the seed of an orange she bought from the grocery store in 1965. It is mine now after my mom passed away in 2016. But I have to say, when I was young I swore that I would never have house plants or a garden—they were too much work. See what happened?
I started creating when I was a small child. I drew and made woodworks, very modest ones. I loved to write short stories, especially in school, and when I was about nine years old I learnt to use a sewing machine. My mom was skilled in sewing too so I followed her steps. In the 1980s, it was quite typical that people made clothing themselves because you could not find cool, or enough different clothing in shops. Fabric shops were heaven for me. I was twelve when I had a huge argument with my mom about the clothing she was sewing for me and that was the point when she told me that she wouldn’t do it anymore. So I began to make my own clothing. When I was a teenager I had some quite interesting clothing that I made myself. I dreamt about being a famous clothing designer. Well, that dream is still there!
In 2013, I went to a special entrepreneur course because I have never been very interested in numbers or money. There I learnt that it really matters what you can find under the line, if you know what I mean, you have to have the right prices in order to pay yourself a salary. Well, it was hard at times to begin working as a freelance photographer in 2014 for many reasons, but luckily I met cook and journalist Meri-Tuuli Väntsi (Instagram) and, with her, I made some very good food photography for companies and a beautiful Pataruokaa (a book of stews) too. We have been in the same workspace since 2014.
I have been photographing flowers for a long time, but they became a part of my business idea in 2016 and that’s when I decided to do it seriously. This meant hours of photographing flowers; don’t ask me how much money I have spent on flowers! I travelled to different kinds of flower workshops where we made arrangements and bouquets. I also began to arrange workshops at our workspace because I wanted to learn how to make a beautiful flower arrangement and I had floral designers teaching that at my workshops. It was also good to specialize in something that no one else did in Finland. In general, I think it is better to be able to do many things and specialize in something. My longing to do so many things is what has taken me on the path to where I am now. I think if I only did photography, I would be bored. It is not enough, I need these other things too.
INSPIRATION
The light of 1700s century still life paintings, music, artists like Tage Andersen, the 1920s era, surrealism, movies—there are plenty of things that inspire me! It can be even a certain kind of moment in the wind, the sound of waves or a good morning coffee. I think you don’t have to travel far to get inspired, but it is nice to do that too from time to time. I find that travelling gives me perspective.
Fritillaria wallpaper design for K-Rauta
My creative style is a strong mood with eclectic vibes. I think the 6 months in Copenhagen in the beginning of 2000 made a strong impact on me and my style. There I found so many different kinds of delicious details, patterns, colours, styles in people’s homes that made me change my own style. Before Copenhagen, I preferred a home that was mainly black, grey and white with one or two colours like dark blue but I fell in love with the rich colourful life in Denmark. So this colourful and eclectic way of building your surroundings is alive with flowers too. However I have to admit, I think I was still a bit afraid of using colours after Denmark. What opened my creative world for colours was painting lessons from 2012 to 2014. I painted abstractly and played with colours and that was super fun. I noticed that I can do this and, later, it all became real in my photos and my work with flowers. It is the same—only the ingredients are a bit different.
In upper secondary school, my art teacher said to me “keep that wild line, Kreetta” when he was looking at my drawing (straight translation from Finnish). I couldn’t do only one line, I needed several to create something, but I think what he really meant was that I should keep my own way, be the person who I really am and follow my own path. During that time I tried to be as normal as I could because I felt that being too different made you stand out and I did not want that to happen. I was a shy and uncertain young lady who wanted eagerly to do things but did not believe at all that she could. Because of this uncertainty that continued till about my late-twenties, I always tell people in my workshops that the most important thing when you’re beginning is not to doubt. You don’t have to be Picasso, but always try. How many talented artists have we lost because they never believed in themselves and never tried?
CREATIVE PROCESS
My creative process happens a lot in my head and I love to work silently. But let’s say if I was making a flower arrangement to be photographed, as I usually do, then everything begins by planning which flowers I would or could use. What are the colours, shapes, textures, greens—if I have them? I order flowers and that is the moment when I have to make some compromises because you have to choose from flowers that are available. It can also be a surprise when flowers arrive and they are the wrong colours.
Whispering wallpaper design for K-Rauta
You can’t make gorgeous flower pictures with lame and common flowers like Gerberas or Carnations, and I wanted to work with flowers that I really love. There is no point in working without love and passion when you’re trying to develop your skills to a level that can amaze people. The money I used to buy flowers was an investment and there were months I didn’t receive a salary at all. My final word for learning is, look at the photos and paintings of flowers, take a lot of photos, find your light and expression. Develop your skills. I’m on that never-ending journey.
Notes from the Editor:
Kreetta’s exhibition “BEE KIND” at gallery HUONE ett RUM in Inkoo, Finland, is opening from July 14th to August 29th, 2021. She has also recently launched a shop where you can purchase high-quality prints and puzzles of her photographs.
To find out more about Kreetta Järvenpää and her work, visit her Instagram and website.
