William Edward deGarthe (1907–1983) was born in Helsinki, Finland. After emigrating to Canada in 1926, he became a painter and sculptor and lived in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je4NXszEYmA

The film "Colorado Avenue," based on the book by Finnish author Lars Sund (b. 1953), and directed by Claes Olsson (left), made its debut on Friday, November 30, 2007 at the 18th annual St. Petersburg Finnish Film Week .

Set in in 19th century Ostrobotnia (Western Finland), and in the USA, the story follows 18-year old Hanna, who emigrates to America in 1893 determined to make her fortune in the Great West – specifically, Colorado. She does so, and ten years later, ‘Dollar-Hanna’ returns home to her village in Finland with a son (Otto) and a daughter (Ida), but without her husband, who met his death in the American miners’ strike of 1903.

Back home in Finland, flush with American dollars, Hanna buys land and opens a store. Her business is a great success and so is she. Hard work and persistence have paid off for Hanna, but with the onset of prohibition (1919), her son Otto gets caught up in a life of crime, becoming first a bootlegger, and finally, it appears, a murderer.


Interested in seeing the film? Depending on where you live, you may be able to download a copy (for a fee) from http://www.ameibo.com/movie/colorado-avenue/ .

Update: This film screened at the 8th Annual Tiburon International Film Festival (March 19-27, 2009), where "Colorado Avenue" star Nicke Lignell was named "best actor."

Video Gem:

I am not a professional art critic, but I would venture to say that there are at least a couple of pieces in this collection of paintings by Mänttäri that even the 'educated' eye would find worthy of praise.

There isn't much about this artist to be found on the internet. A brief bio is included in one anthology - Life and Death: Writing Experience 2002 Anthology - all I could find. If anyone has any more info to share - a photo would be appreciated - please email me!

I found this slide show on an interesting 'film & animation' blog by Des out of Los Angeles, California. He provides this brief intro to the collection:

"The original paintings of Finnish artist Ruth Mänttäri , including the autographed limited edition Farscape paintings, set to the music of Nightwish's song "Death Makes An Artist" (Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan) from their "Once" Album. Ruth not only has had gallery showings of her art, but her work has also been published."

Ms. Mänttäri (if this is the artist) passed away in San Diego, California just this year (October 5th, 2008) at the age of 68.

Thank you, Des, for introducing her work to the world through cyberspace!

Death Makes An Artist - Nightwish - Farscape

Finnish baritone Jorma Hynninen was born 3 April 1941 in Leppävirta, Finland. He studied from 1966 to 1970 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and also took lessons from Luigi Ricci in Rome and Kurt Overhoff in Salzburg. Since then he has been a soloist at the Finnish National Opera (1970-90) and musical director (1984-90). He has also sung in various other countries.

(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Video Gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qb8P-l8t3s
(Jorma Hynninen Sings Die Winterreise)