"At my core, I am Finnish," said Gwen Putz, a student from the Cleveland Institute of Art and an intern at the Finnish Heritage Museum. She was on loan to us and in turn we loaned her our museum to learn about her family and in the end, to learn about herself. Gwen is in the Printmaking program at the Institute and the work she put on display was truly an example of understanding the Finns and how their lives were shaped through history, culture, and work ethic. Lithography is a printmaking technique wherein the artist uses stone or metal plates to create multiples of an image.

The outcome was a lovely afternoon art show at FHM among the many historical displays. More than 65 people turned out to fill the tiny museum with love and interest for Gwen and her art. It was a three hour art show complete with Finnish bread, cheese, crackers, fruit and of course some great conversation. Gwen was surrounded by her family and school friends, but she also found new friends in her association with the museum.

As they milled about the museum, you could hear such chatter as “oh my goodness, I love this marriage picture. She is so talented. This reminds me of my iso mummi and iso paappa and their wedding.” “I wonder where she got this idea of the car?.” “And how old is that car?” Well, Gwen shared with us how she took inspiration of all that the museum had to offer in its collections, its people, and of course our head genealogist and curators' interests. She, Ann Pohto (our head genealogist and Program Director) and Janine LaBounty (our curator) spent hours looking at some of the collections that are not on the floor at this time and it generated so much inquisitiveness. Ann shared the many files the museum houses of family genealogies and Janine took her under her wing to share the many items gifted, loaned, or purchased by the museum for the exhibits. How do these things fit into my history, my culture, me? This is what a museum like the Finnish Heritage Museum is meant to do. As you enter the museum, even if you are not a Finn, you are met with solid objects like weavings, fabrics, glassware, wooden art, many modalities of art and so much more. How do these material things factor into who you are?

You don’t just learn about the objects however. You may sit on a Saturday morning and talk to visitors to the museum or perhaps have coffee with the regulars who will regale you of what old Fairport was like, maybe a story about their family, and most definitely their opinions on what’s happening in the world right now. All these things helped Gwen carve a little niche for herself as a Finn. That Finnishness comes out through a variety of mediums in the museum. In Gwen’s case, she wanted to share her artistic interests in a new way, one that expressed who she was as a Finn. Her artwork is truly a meshing of the old with the new and of self realization.

Were your great-grandparents, as were Gwen’s, a part of the Karelian movement into Finland by the Russians? Have your ancestors been asked to leave the majority of their possessions behind and move within hours to a totally new land? What must it have been like? What must those ancestors have been like? Do I share SISU with them? What does SISU mean in my family? The definition from sciencedirect.com states that SISU is determination, courage, and firmness in the face of adversity. Since Gwen’s family was a part of the Karelian displacement, we definitely see the face of adversity but their responses showed us all the determination to make it in a new land and to have the courage to begin again. Gwen’s Isomummi never let on how difficult this time was in their family, but instead talked about the white snow and the white clothes as they moved to their new home. She didn’t talk about the lack of her own things or how bitter the cold was. For those who have never left a home behind, this may seem an odd tale. But to those who were forced from their homes and given only a short time to determine what was important enough to load on the sleds, this time was surreal. And so it was many, many years later as Gwen looked at the pictures that she realized how much they had sacrificed to keep their family safe. The pictures told the story better than the people had told the story. And Gwen sought to make connections with her family through her art.

She took pieces and parts from the photos, rugs (Ryijys - which are handmade rugs made of thick fibers), weavings, and other items and put them together in borders around three of her pieces of work. Not one was the same and all made you think of a quilt or ancient Indian art. Indeed some of the art is from the Sami, who are the only indigenous people of Scandinavia. In this short period of her internship, just six months, Gwen found herself and her people. She surrounded herself with books, articles, actual things, and of course some Finnish people to help her mold her story. Through the Finnish museum she heard others’ stories of the Winter War and the Continuation War. From another speaker at the museum she learned about sotolapset, and how these children were separated from their families, culture, and language in an attempt to save them. She learned about SISU up front and passionately as one sees in her lithographs.

Perhaps most notable was that Gwen’s work was nestled among the other items in the museum, lining the walls in and around other wall pieces as well as the gallery shelves. Interestingly, some asked “which ones are hers?” That was truly a huge compliment to Gwen as her work seemed to fit the same timeframe as the exhibits.