It’s two days since I left Hub Feenix.
I already miss it. Several debuts to me during the past month! My first time to do artist residency, to make art while travelling, to make canvas stretchers by myself, to do monotype printing, to do traditional Finnish sauna, to see midnight sun, to have vegetarian diet for whole month, and to have overseas collector for my art! So touched to know my art speaks to someone on the other side of the earth.

At Hub Feenix, artists are free to decide how to use the time. I didn’t make any presumptions but opened up myself. End up I completed one painting and started the 2nd piece. It’s a new series inspired not only by the nature but also my reflections on Finnish life style and human activities.

Thanks to the amazing staff of Hub Feenix who made this residency successful and fruitful! Also thanks to my fellow resident artists for sharing this wonderful memory with me.

What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.

The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!

What a lovely sharing session with other resident artists at Hub Feenix! I talked about my art journey starting 4 years ago, what I have been through, my signature “My Wonderland” series, and the art piece I am working on now — inspired by the nature here and Finnish nature-loving lifestyle.

The resident artists at Hub Feenix come from different countries. Their expertise ranges from painting, animation, comics, improvised music, digital art to film making! I have learned a lot from them. Hub Feenix is a centre of creativity and well-being. Many of its staff and volunteers are also artists. Thanks for listening to my sharing and your comments and encouragement!

Photo by fellow resident artist Lisa Labracio

My first self-made stretcher bars! (and first time to do woodworks since my DT lesson back in secondary school!)

I always paint on stretched canvas but it’s difficult (and stupid) to bring them from Hong Kong to Finland by plane. So I brought a canvas roll instead. But it felt a bit different to paint on unstretched “soft canvas piece”. Thanks to Clint, another resident artist at Hub Feenix. He suggested me doing the stretcher bars here, and gave me a step-by-step workshop: cutting the bars into desired lengths, sanding the edges, combining them into a frame with drill, and stretching the canvas over the frame.
Now I can paint on a stretched canvas!

Woodwork can be fun, when having the right teacher and tools!

I had three very intense and very productive weeks at Hub Feenix in May 2024. I loved the stillness, the woods, the lake, the simplicity of a daily life being able to fully concentrate on my work, what I felt and wanted to do in every moment. I was able to dive deeply into myself and bring out the best of what I am able to perform literary. I ran and ran along the forest roads, not seeing anyone, only a deer or a hare or listening to a cuckoo bird in the distance. I ate simple and healthy food, happy to have no temptations available. I read a lot. And when it turned out there was a sewing machine available for my use, it couldn't be a more perfect stay for me. I felt healthier and richer after these three weeks, and I hope sincerely I will be able to come back - preferably every year!

I have been playing flute and making recordings in different places at Hub Feenix. I have a background playing many styles of music, but in recent years I primarily improvise on the flute as a way into music composition and sound design. In general I love improvising because, not only does it help me to be more present, but its fleeting nature reminds us that status quos are not inevitable, and are changeable.

I'm also playing with the idea of proximity and distance in the spaces of Hub Feenix. I've been interested in how closeness can imply a range of colours from confinement to intimacy, kinship, love, family and solidarity. Similarly, distance can invoke aloneness, separation, to silence/the unknown, to dreaming and space. This led me to creatively questioning how I could follow these concepts in my audio work and I got interested in combining different spaces, and using natural and simulated reverb.

It has been a week since I've arrived at Hub Feenix. The first weekend was a hint that winter had not yet fully relinquished his grip on the land. Like the last remnants of a retreating army, heaps of snow still lay on the ground. The mornings had a chill that had your tropical writer burrow into the nest of blankets. Now already it seems a memory. The earth is quickening into life. In ever widening gyres, I find paths into the woods and fields that surround the centre. I see hares, and once, a particularly handsome cat, yesterday there were deer disporting on the football field. The writing goes slowly, but that is to be expected. Sometimes, improving the empty page is the hardest thing there is.

Another 2 meter-tall goddess has had her portrait completed!! I am in love with the process of learning about these deities and then figuring out how to interpret them through my lens and palette. Mayari is especially important to me as she comes from my mother's culture in the Philippines. Even though (and probably because!) my family from the Philippines may not know much about indigenous, pre-colonial practices from the Philippines, I felt compelled to bring her to life. Mayari is the moon goddess, and is known to carry a baston (long bamboo stick weapon), and to have only one eye, due to losing one in a fight with her younger brother! Well, I used to have lots of fights with my brothers, but thankfully no one lost an eye ;)

I came back from a month at Hub Feenix with my heart and mind full to the brim with ideas and information. More importantly, I felt a sense of healing and belonging that had been missing. After a year of despair, something about the loving environment at "The Hub" helped me feel safe enough to process and speak about trauma and sadness with no fear. When I arrived back in the US, even though I had to immediately jump into a very packed and hectic teaching schedule, I still found time to paint the final water vaki, which was calling to me from the lake...

Hi there, my name is Dymphie Kies and I am living in the Netherlands.

As a visual artist and a systemic coach I guide people to understand their life stories and the underlaying emotions which gave direction.
In my artworks I prefer smooth materials like textiles, cotton, silk and wool, preferably recycled so the material in itself is already telling a story.
For the next 4.5 weeks I will continue to search for and to investigate the theme “Light in Finland”, which I initiated back in 2016 at an AiR in Hauho.
People are influenced by the colors of the light, every second of the day, over and over again. This time I’ll use my camera to give even more expression to the fabric works.

If you are interested in the results of 2016 look at my blog on my website www.dymphiekies.nl

Warm greetings !!

I arrived at Hub Feenix 10 days ago and so far have been settling in and picking up where I left off with two digital art projects. It is beautiful here - colorful, peaceful, full of friendly people.

The first project I've been focusing on is part of a series called 'Come Home,' a digital collage project about an othered person searching for belonging. I am also beginning to draft the concept for a follow-up to 'are ex - i,' a digital collage project I completed last year based on some photos, journals, dreams, and musings about life with multiple sclerosis. I did not realize there could be more to this project until I arrived here, but after a year of taking a very unconventional path to living with this disability, it turns out there are more reflections that want to come through.