nubivagant

Collection // spring 2021 —>

”Nubivagant”, engl:
”Wandering through the clouds”

origin latin; “nubes” (cloud) + “vagari” (wandering)

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What does it mean to be a dreamer in a world where dreams are often endangered?

We all are born with dreams hiding under our sternum. They nest there like small birds, crooning while we sleep, restlessly rustling their wings. A child’s eyes still enclose the depth of all fantasies and possibilities - whole unknown universes of dreaming and hoping.

Life isn’t always gentle on the birds of our dreams, though. Nestlings, learning to leave the nest and rise to their wings, sometimes are whisked away by a gust of a storm, or are brought down by a hailstorm, or get lost in a darkening twilight. Some never dare to leave the nest and just huddle on the branches, shivering against a world too cool.

It’s risky to dream. Dreams hide what’s most true in us - the things that keep our hearts beating again and again and again. Dreams are the things that reveal most of us - and it’s terrifyingly risky to let something like that venture out into the world just like that, to let it face the uncontrollable winds and indifferent storms.

But - it’s as risky to bind the wings of your birds and lock them up. A caged bird is seemingly safe - but it’ll never feel the air move, never sense the light grow, it’ll never soar. To lock away your dreams is to cease living a true life; it’s locking yourself away. That way you’ll never learn to fly, never learn to rise up again and again and again - never learn to soar.

I’ve thought about this a lot lately - how pricelessly, invaluably, incomparably important it is to be a dreamer in a world like this. See, we only dream of the things that are good. We dream of the things that are beautiful and good and true. There are other kinds of pressing needs and thoughts in us, but if they do not reach for something that is good, we call them with a different name. They’re obsessions, addictions. Dreams always reach for something that is simply good; they’re powered by the hope that one day things will heal, they will all become beautiful.

And what would become of a world where no such bird would fly?

The people who risk flying even when the world can be cruel are the ones who eventually change the world.

The word “nubivagant” means “the one who wanders in the clouds”. It’s derived from the latin word nubes, meaning “cloud”, and vagari, meaning “wandering”.

We sometimes speak of dreamers in a contemptuous way. In Finnish the words “taivaanrannan maalari” would be translated in “the one who paints the horizon” - which stands for someone who mostly does idle woolgathering and loses time in daydreaming. We also have a phrase “tuulen tavoittelu”, chasing the wind, and it’s used to describe useless, vain attempts at something.

The idea behind the Nubivagant Collection is the opposite: what if it’s precisely moving in the clouds, flying with the wind that is most important? Nubivagant, to me, stands for a person who has the courage to dream and chooses to let the birds of their dreams fly, even if the winds sometimes are harsh and even if the birds need to learn to rise again to their wings.

For it’s the risktakers, the bold dreamers who change the world.

The colours and shapes of this collection are based on the many faces of the sky; some are flaming and fierce sunset scenes, some soft and gentle morning skies. Nubivagant is an ongoing collection - I will keep creating more pieces in the coming months.

All the pieces have a strong texture; the intricate nature and details of the texture can’t fully be conveyed in pictures - so the paintings have even more character when met in real life.