Textile designer and painter Maija Isola rose to world fame from Riihimäki

"There's a fire burning inside me that I have to take care of so it doesn't burn me out."

Textile artist, painter Maija Isola was one of Finland's most famous pattern designers and worked as the main designer of Marimekko's interior fabrics for a long time.

He was also an artist, a free soul who lived for his work. In total, Isola created more than 500 patterns, many of which are still alive today. Poppy. Gull. Wedding rose. Dombra. Bright colors, bold brushstrokes, individuality shine in them.

Isola's story begins in Riihimäki, the village of Arolammi, and is partly contradictory. The main role is played by an artist, a designer, a mother. A woman who enjoyed freedom and the hustle and bustle of the world, but always returned to the peace of Arolammi.

"I was never a child. I was a horse.”

"I was never a little girl. I was never a child. I was a horse.”

Maija Isola was born in March 1927, the third girl in the family. The parents had a farm in Arolammi, Riihimäki. In the photo, the place looks handsome, there are six windows on each floor.

Father Mauno sang in choirs and wrote songs, mother Toini was a horse woman and skilled in handicrafts. The daughters drew, wrote and designed whole worlds. Sometimes haystacks were made.

Isola walked in the woods, took care of animals, felt like an animal. Childhood was free, there was a sense of wonder in life... The same freedom was important to him later on.

Now granddaughter Emma Isola lives in Arolammi's landscape, the horses graze in her meadows.

"As a child, I didn't even know that Maija was famous. It only dawned on me when Unikko came up again. As a person, Maija was independent, fair, an artist, a lover of nature. She thought a lot, and people discussed philosophical and religious questions with her," says Emma Isola.

Cigarettes and movies with milk money

Maija Isola's life is characterized by departures. First close, then further, to the world.

The first departure was at the age of 13. Isola moved to Riihimäki and started vocational school. First he lived with his sisters in the house of the crown prince Hurmee, then alone in a rented room.

War was already on the horizon.

"Somehow, however, I am attracted by the idea that I could act, live many lives, fight against difficulties, try to reach complete freedom, naturalness."

Isola loved movies, the city and the new restless world.

Riihimäki had a garrison and a railway, school friends went to war. There were air raids and a sense of danger, but also a new kind of independence.

From home, Isola received food and a liter of milk every day. He sold milk, used the money to buy cigarettes and went to the movies.

When he was in high school, big things happened. First the father died, then Isola got married. The following year, daughter Kristina was born. Graduation essays went wrong.

Irma's sister studied at Ateneum to become an art teacher, Isolaki was inspired to apply.

“Maija didn't know what she wanted to do. Actually, Irma was a better draftsman. Somewhat coincidentally, Irma said to come here to the Ateneum, and Maija said I could try,” Emma Isola says.

From the hustle and bustle of Helsinki

The second departure took Isola to Helsinki. Arolammi's forest paths were replaced by Ateneum, the city, fabrics and art. Daughter Kristina stayed with Isola's mother, the marriage cooled down.

"The most difficult change point in his life was moving away from the home farm, Isola's house, where he had spent his childhood in forests and fields, taking care of animals..."

Isola already yearned for further away, for the world. In the summer of 1948, he worked at a restaurant in Oslo and was inspired by the city's museums. After returning to Finland, he participated in a design competition, where his fabric was quoted. The following year, the first Isola patterns – Ruukut, Myrha, Amfora and Hevonen – were produced by Armi Ratia's Printex.

Isola had come to love her departure, the feeling of freedom. He soon headed for Paris. When the others returned home, Isola walked over the Alps and continued by train to Italy.

Hiking trips around the world

Perhaps what Isola loved the most was going out: freedom, the feeling of detachment. There were also men. He was married three times and entered into relationships even after the marriages.

Isola's second marriage was with the painter Jaakko Somersalo. Soon the couple left to explore the world: Paris, Italy, Barcelona, ​​Tangier.

"We hiked long distances, spent the night whenever and wherever, cooked our food outside with a sprinkler. Traveling was very tiring, romance was far from it."

Isola wore a black skirt, shirt blouse and leather jacket. The skirt also served as a sleeping bag, rings rattled around the wrists. He saw colors in the landscapes.

"The sea was almost calm and was like a thick sapphire blue silk that shimmered in the sun, turning green and in the distance a dark blue with a hint of purple."

Departures were always followed by returns. From the world, Isola always returned to the peace of Arolammi, spread the old fabrics on the dining room floor and got to work.

Fabrics and secretly painting

Isola was fascinated on the one hand by travel, new places, the big world, on the other hand by home, nature and solitude. He left and came back, several times.

However, the most important thing was work. Isola already designed patterns for Marimekko. They were born at a rapid pace.

“He always thought about work, colors and form. Painting supplies were always with him. He also loved our place, the rural landscape of Isola in Häme. Our family has lived here since the 1700th century,” says Emma Isola.

In 1952, Isola and Somersalo built a house for Arolammi. It was named Kaunismäki. There was no heating, electricity or running water, and while the foundations were dug by hand, Isola and Somersalo lived next door in a log cabin. The excavated stones later gave rise to the idea for Kivet patterns.

However, life was not idyllic.

Somersalo was the one who painted. Isola hid her own work under the bed. The marriage broke up in 1955. For Isola, it opened an opportunity for art. The following year, he held his first own art exhibition. Even later, he felt that he was above all a painter.

Soon it was time to leave again, Isola headed for Paris and Spain, towards freedom.

"Mental freedom is the opportunity to do the work you really want. The most inspiring thing is freedom. The fact that you can do it on your own while traveling."

Then he returned home and spread the large papers on the floor. The summers in Kaunismäki never seemed to end.

Helsinki's bright years

There were important returns. In 1960, Isola moved to Helsinki.

He had found a new love, deputy judge Jorma Tissari. Tissari's mother and Isola's daughter Kristina also moved into the same house with their husbands. There was antique furniture and a sense of permanence.

"I remember these years as a particularly fun and bright time when a lot happened."

"When I was a child, Maija was my ideal and role model, in my youth she was my friend and friend, when I was an adult, she was my teacher and colleague", writes Kristina Isola.

Life unraveled. Food was made in a big cauldron, and a litter of dogs lived in one of the rooms for a while.

"Maija was never called mother or grandmother. She was Maija," says Emma Isola.

Isola had her own peace in her studio in Suomenlinna.

Paris, Egypt, love and art

Perhaps the most productive period of Isola's life is marked by departures and returns. He headed to Paris, Algeria and America. At the same time, a huge number of new designs were created.

Classics were born, such as the Architect series from the 1960s. Isola caught the spirit of the times and rose to fame. When the heavy band Led Zeppelin posed in a promo photo, Isola's fabric was beautiful in the background.

In 1964, Unikko and Vihkiruusu, among others, saw the light of day. They and a whole series of flowers were designed by Isola when Armi Ratia said that at least no flowers should be printed on the fabric.

The patterns spread to the world. Even today, the poppy can also be seen in the Isola mural of Riihimäki's street scene.

Isola's fabric designs have earned her fame, but she also painted tirelessly, strongly felt that she was a painter.

He painted at home and in his studio in the artist house in Paris. He also headed to Paris after his third marriage ended.

“I had come to Paris at the beginning of April, tired from the winter. In January, I had moved out of my house, from my husband, lived with my friends temporarily, went to my studio in Suomenlinna to paint in felt slippers and woolen clothes, rabbit fur with hair coming out and a scarf on my head."

He longed for his own peace and solitude, no longer believed in a relationship.

However, a new departure was soon ahead. A new love had been found, the Algerian Muhamad, and Isola headed to Algeria, stayed there for a long time. Only when the idyll darkened and the relationship failed, Isola returned home broken.

Exotic flowers and foreign landscapes still roamed the canvases. Feelings soon took Isola to the world again. The next love was Ahmed Al-Haggag, a theater arts researcher living in the United States. Isola moved to America.

The background was also the idea of ​​Marimekko in the world. Already before, Isola's patterns had been seen in New York and in the world's number one magazines, now we were looking for something even bigger. There were messages from Ratia in the middle of the night.

"Maija herself didn't care about fame or being a punk," says Emma Isola.

In the American photos, Isola is dressed in a white shirt and jeans, standing serenely in the middle of a large landscape. He did yoga, walked and painted Appalachian landscapes. America's Boone reminded him of Riihimäki.

Return from America to Helsinki

Returning home was ahead in 1979. Isola moved to Helsinki, and Marimekko's design partner was daughter Kristina.

"We visited Maija in the village. She was doing yoga, we had to be quiet. She was working, we had to be quiet," Emma Isola laughs.

"Maija and I did Helsinki things, fancy things for a rich person. We watched Turhapura, went to art exhibitions and museums. We did funny things, for example, we tried to see if you could really slip on a banana. We also went shopping at Stockmann and an art supply store, and ate at a restaurant. Maija always said that we were having a business lunch now," says Emma Isola.

Maija Isola read a lot, loved movies and series, especially Beautiful and Brave. He was interested in all kinds of things.

The pace of work was still ferocious. Marimekko was creating a new kind of world, where design was comprehensive, fabrics part of everyday life.

However, the distance between Ratia became tighter. Everyone collapsed on the sofa. Isola wanted a sofa, because she thought creative thinking would be best there, but Ratia didn't agree. Isola left Marimekko. Later he returned, but on better terms.

For the summer, Isola always returned to Arolammi. It was an idyll, something peaceful and permanent.

"There, Maija taught me to paint, we played cards, and did gardening. When I had my first child, Maija spent a lot of time with her, she had missed out on experiencing her own child's infancy. Maija also did yoga and thought a lot about the transmigration of souls, which has left a lot of memories for me as well," Emma Isola says.

Kaunismäki's last summer

In 1991, the last return was ahead. The circle closed. Isola moved back to Arolammi, to Kaunismäki's house. To the place he had built almost 40 years before.

The hum of the world was left behind. Isola walked in nature, took care of the yard, drew anthills and the small lizards of Kaunismäki. Painting began to feel more and more important.

"Later on, he was quite a recluse, didn't want to see anyone. In his last years, he was strongly a painter," says Emma Isola.

In 2000, Isola learned that she was terminally ill. He spent the rest of his time at home. There she was cared for by her daughter and granddaughter, Kristina and Emma.

Isola still experienced Kaunismäki's wonderful summer and winter. Then, on a clear frosty day, in the moment when the six shook off the glittering snows, Isola died.

"Maybe this possibility of exploding is always present in my being and doing. Nothing can be certain. That's why I don't collect things around me, and I don't like repetitive events like cooking. Even everyday tasks have a sense of elegance if you can think of them as unique."

*****

This spring, Isola's patterns are returning home. The Maija Isola – Kuoseja Amfora to Unikko exhibition opens in Riihimäki Art Museum in May.

"The exhibition presents patterns by theme and period, from the earliest Amfora fabric to fabric designs created during the time spent in the United States and later new productions. It also features, among other things, objects and tools that belonged to Isola," says Katja Vuorinen-Perm, curator at Riihimäki Art Museum.

Quotes:

• Maija Isola. Life, art, Marimekko (Design museum 2005).
• Maija Isola documentary, directed by Leena Kilpeläinen, 2021
• Interview with Emma Isola

Leena-Kaisa Laakso

Maija Isola

• Born on 15.3.1927 March XNUMX.
• Spent his childhood and youth at Arolammi in Riihimäki.
• Studied at Ateneum.
• Marriages with staff manager Georg Leander, painter Jaakko Somersalo and deputy judge Jorma Tissari.
• The child Kristina was born in 1946 and the first grandchild Maria in 1964, when Isola was 36 years old.
• Kristina Isola worked as Isola's design partner from the 1980s and continued her work after Isola's death. Emma Isola is now responsible for Isola's models.
• Designed his first designs for Marimekko's predecessor, Printex, in 1949 and worked as Marimekko's main interior fabric designer until 1987. Designed more than 500 printed patterns.
• Had a long career as a painter and felt that he was above all a painter.
• Isola's places in Riihimäki

Isola farm in Arolammi

• Arolammi Folk School
• Riihimäki school and high school, krununvoud house
• The now demolished studio building in Kaunismäki