MARITTA NURMI a Finnish artist living and working in Hanoi creates works transformed by her own personal discovery of living in a culture quite alien to her own fused with a passion for uncovering the unknown. Maritta says ‘In Buddhism there are said to be seven veils of illusion. As each is discarded, a person is said to understand another aspect of the true nature of life and the self. Lifting the veils makes one strong enough to tolerate what life is about.’ Using a practice akin to alchemy Maritta creates her works by meticulously applying layers of acrylic, silver leaf and then again reapplying acrylic for definition of the visual forms. Having studied the Vietnamese lacquer technique in Hanoi, Maritta developed her own way of working with layers of medium, using acrylic instead of lacquer, infusing light and lustre with silver leaf and in later works, copper leaf. Each work of art is a study of reflection, capturing the mood and atmosphere externally and also internally. As she constructs each can vas the foundation is laid and then the life of the painting begins. Tears that cleanse, circles that represent openings or portals to another world, dots that symbolize beginnings or roots, shimmering veils of silver and currently copper leaf, all constitute the journey of the work. Gazing at each work one is transported to another world, entering the metallic landscape, one can begin to discover that inner world that exists in all of us.