Nuutinen's studio is located in Lappeenranta in the Art Center Itä (East) in addition to two gallery spaces and Kaakko Artotheque. " Usually people come to Itä to see finished art but during Konstrundan I can also show them one-way art is made!" she says.
Maria thinks that the model for making things by hand that she brought from home influenced her decision to become an artist. Her mother had made handicrafts, a skill she had inherited from her mother. Maria's grandfather, on the other hand, had a metal foundry. Even as a child, Maria liked to draw and make things with her hands in peace and quiet, although as a child in a large family, there were certainly plenty of playmates. The good feedback and encouragement she received at school inspired her to continue with handicrafts, and in Lappeenranta, there were good jewellery-making classes. Maria first studied at Lappeenranta Craft School as a stone craftswoman and when the design courses at the local polytechnic started, she continued her studies there. At the school, she found her own channel in jewelry art making, which combined thinking, expressing and creating with her hands. During her studies, the school had many international teachers visiting, which gave her the opportunity to see the industry from a different perspective than Finland.
Maria mentions camera and pencil as her favourite tools and enamelling as her favourite technique. Sometimes the jewelry is assembled from recycled materials and Maria finds it rewarding to challenge herself and try different techniques. Nuutinen thinks, draws and designs: often she has a photographic subject in mind, for which the jewellery becomes a kind of prop, sometimes the process goes the other way. Maria thinks she is quite absolute in her work and doesn't think much about her jewellery from a commercial point of view. The style is strong, the works are quite ambivalent; many either love or hate them. Nuutinen's works often deal with current phenomena, and themes emerge from everyday observations, what she sees on the street and what she reads in newspapers. Behaviour, power relations, changing beauty ideals and dietary pressures are examples of themes that Maria tries to explore in her work.
Maria's work is available at exhibitions around the world, at the Jewellery Art Association's annual art sale in Helsinki and at the Kaakko Artotheque in Lappeenranta. Teaching has also seemed to be a meaningful solution for her livelihood. Maria teaches enamel work and porcelain painting part-time at the Adult Education Centre of South Karelia and occasionally works as a teacher of visual arts at a secondary school. The social aspect of teaching also acts as a counterbalance to the solitary artistic work and Maria says it also feeds her own artistic work and creativity!
Maria sees Konstrundan as a well-functioning concept and a good way to make art and the artist’s trade more accessible and familiar to the general public. The workshop is a freer environment to talk in and people are more willing to give feedback than at a vernissage, for example. What the event brings to the participating artists is the useful comments and ideas that come out of the discussions. It can also be easier for visitors to buy art directly from the artist. Last year, Maria gave visitors the opportunity to try enamelling and the workshop was attended by people of all ages. "It was inspiring to see the children's joy when enamelling and that they could be proud of the result of their own hands," says Maria. Driven by these positive experiences, it might be possible to spend some time in Nuutinen's studio again this year to experience what it would be like to work as a jewellery artist.