I spent the week with a group of students from the University on Nötö Island, in the Turku Archipelago, measuring and documenting a wooden chuch. The church was constructed in 1756 and the paintings were completed in 1771. When we return to the school in Otaneimi we will complete some detailed drawings and a model in the woodshop.
The Island of Nötö only has 9 year round residents who maintain the church and the beautiful graveyard covered with wildflowers. The church was built by a group of seaman whose ship went down and they built the church in gratitute of their survival. You may notice the ceiling of the ship resembles the construction of a ships hull.
We also took a ferry to an island called Utö on the southernmost border of Finland to look at an old lighthouse church. Three of us missed the ferry back that evening and had to sleep on the rocks by the shore. Unfortunately the ferry didn’t come again for 2 days so we were essentially marooned on the island. However, after the first night of camping out we met an awesome young finnish couple that found us a place to stay and invited us to a grill at their house that evening. JP translates books on philosophy from english to finnish and Tiina is a teacher and works at a very small gallery that was created inside of a root cellar. They keep a blog about their life on the island (www.integralisland.blogspot.com)
What a please to read your notes on Noto Island I spent several months on Noto in 1985 building a sculpture. I have slides of the church and its hanging ship. I love that little island. Do you remember any of the island tales of elk crossing the ice to come to Noto. If so, I would like to hear them.
Michelle Stuart