Written by Anna Itkonen
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Kirana Haag is a visual artist, an abstract expressionist with solid and bold colours. Her paintings are creations or felt reactions to beautiful moments. “That feeling is not always beautiful, but I want to find the beauty within that moment. I paint abstract because I need to create emotions rather than what we can see with our eyes. I want to capture another realm, the subtle form of language without words of expression.”
Kirana Haag
Kirana’s creative process starts with emotions and putting them onto the canvas whichever chaotic way they come. The next part of the process is to find the beauty in it. This is not to say that everything is beautiful but to clarify that we can find beauty in everything if we allow ourselves to look for it.
Nothing Can Keep Me From You | 80 x 40cm, Mixed media on Belgian linen
The creative process is a dream-like experience. She is not outside looking into the dream; she is inside feeling it. The inspiration for a painting could be a smile on somebody’s face, the sun being caught on water or leaves moving in the wind. This moment might be brief and passing, but the beauty of it is all-encompassing.
Deep Voice | 85 x 85cm, Mixed media on Belgian linen
“I paint mainly by feeling. I do sketch quite a bit, but it is more colour sketching, not something realistic. It is the feeling that then translates into colour. I literally start with one blob, one dot or one line with one colour in one medium, and then I go from there step by step by step.”
Remembering That Fleeting Golden Moment | 80 x 55cm, Mixed media on cotton
“I have a hundred artworks in progress, and some of them might be finished soon, some in five years’ time. I don’t work on all of them every single day. I go from one to the next based on a feeling rather than a judgment or decision made by my brain. It is a feeling of what this artwork needs next. Or whether it needs anything. The creative process is more like a dance around all these artworks and around all the material I have around me. It is listening and meditation over and over with these artworks. What do I need to do? Where do I need my hands, the paintbrush or whichever I use? The biggest mistake I can do not to listen enough.”
Lines We Can Grow With | 150 x 150cm, Mixed media on Belgian linen
Kirana works with mixed media. Sometimes, it means many different mediums, sometimes only two. “I love being in my studio and having all these possibilities. I sometimes feel it is like a laboratory, and you have all the different options you can use for that moment. Whatever I want to express, there are no rules. I can use any medium, mix them at any time and add as many layers as I like.”
Fulfilment | 89 x 96cm, Mixed media on Belgian linen
She has a unique connection to colours, and it is reflected in her art. “I see everything in colour. I see colour in music, around people, in conversations. Everything translates into my memory in colour. I believe seeing in colour led me to paint. Especially when I see it around people, there is such beauty in that. I always felt so excited about expressing it and making others see it. Perhaps even help the people themselves see it.”
Through colour, she builds tension and contrasts in her art. There are artworks that are mainly red, pink or orange and have contrasting parts of bright green, for example. It is in the juxtaposition of quiet areas with very intense parts and colours.
A Peaceful Place | 65 x 45cm, Mixed media on cotton
Kirana wanted to be an artist ever since she was young. It started from a need to find and express beauty. Art and creativity offered balance for her growing up and created an outlet for a young girl growing up in a challenging environment. “I, myself, could create and had power and control over it. It was a possibility to escape and to create a different world. From there, I realised that I could use some of those magical places, and slowly, it became my profession. It has been a long journey for my art to become my full-time profession, but now it is.”
With my bare feet in pindan | 140 x 100cm, Mixed media on Belgian linen
“My art is always about coming together, coming close, being in a warm relationship with each other and with the world. It is about enjoying the moments of the day, a few special moments possibly, and the beauty in all its seconds. If I walk down the street and see two people who don’t know each other smiling at each other, that, to me, is a wonderful, beautiful moment.”
The people who love her art are as much part of the creative process as she is. Having her art as part of someone’s everyday life is like an answer to a creative question she has worked on for years on that particular canvas. The process is fulfilled when it is hanging on somebody’s wall.
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