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. Light influences people and life by its colors, its intensity, its warmth. In Finland I found an overwhelming nature with pure blue sky, pure light and real silence. Two years ago I got the opportunity to continue working this theme as an AiR at HUB Feenix in Meltola. Thanks to the international open minded environment and the diversity of artists was working here a very refreshing and stimulating period for me. Nevertheless I have the feeling that the theme “Light in Finland” is not completed yet, it needs a further, perhaps deeper investigation which is my objective for the coming weeks. If you are interested in the results of the earlier AiR periods then have a look at the blogs on my website www.dymphiekies.nl
Warm greetings!!

What a wonderfully surprising and rewarding experience!
As a recent MFA graduate and early career artist, I found Hub Feenix to be welcoming and inspiring. The Hub offers so much for the creative mind to work, play and rest.

During my two month stay, I felt like I was able to have a taste of the Finnish culture, engaging with the local art community in Helsinki and Fiskar. I also centered myself in the quiet of nature that is so readily accessible from home base.

As a multidisciplinary artist, I was excited to find a great deal of freedom provided by the facilities, especially the wood shop! Their vision for the future maker’s space and studios is inspiring and something I will be keeping a close eye on moving forward.

I am wildly grateful for my time at the Hub and especially to the warm, welcoming and energizing members who work hard to make this place a reality.

The winter landscape in Meltola has left an impression on my subconscious mind. December’s darkness and elongated blue hours created a space for me that fostered deep-set introspection. These conditions, though severe, were both formative as well as restorative, offering me the frame of mind for reflection and course correction. The quietude of the snow, absorbing sound cloaked the earth in a silence I’ve never beheld before, it made me reverent. My time at the Hub Feenix led me to a place of resolve both personally and professionally, encouraging me to embrace a new path forward as both a human being and as well as a creative. Surrounded by a community filled with compassion and warmth, I found not only a home away from home but also a space for internal alignment.

during my time at the residency, I did some dyeing with local mushrooms like cortinarius and sarcodon squamosus. it was really fun to walk around in the forest surrounding the area during the end of mushroom season with my basket and picking the best looking mushrooms! i ended up with four skeins of lettlopi icelandic yarn.
while at hub feenix, i worked on some small handsewn patchwork quilts and sketched out some new ideas for the next ones! apart from the artistic work done there, i had a great time going to the sauna each week, playing games with all the volunteers, eating piparkakku, talking to the sheep and building a snow woman!!

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!

Photo by fellow resident artist Lisa Labracio

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!

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.

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!

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 ;)