icehole
acrylic + mix
60 x 60 cm
see below the origin for my inspiration
tampere, finland
brrrr…how to unplug and re-boot your mind…feeling afterwards like a newborn baby (with skin looking similiar to a piece of kobe beef) !!
some people say it’s a polar bear dunk, others find it is just stupidity incarnate. but speaking from my own crazy awesome experience: that ice-swimming brought me on to a whole new level of body awareness! i think the secret of plunging into icy water lies in the feeling that surges through your body once you get out of the water. well, i needed a certain amount of courage (+ sauna) before going into the water, but i did indeed overcome the fear to enter the unknown black and felt myself afterwards incredible brave and strong! the initial shock and momentary loss of feeling in my legs was passing soon. as soon as i was back on dry land my circulation kicked in and my body started to warm up.
the change was amazing and the resulting energy boost stayed with me for hours!
sirpa mononen 
To be honest I have no idea what Kobe beef looks like but I am impressed how well the painting reflects the freezing cold on the swimmer’s face!
well, kobe has got a well-marbled texture and that’s the way i looked like, too. we finns are nuts, hehe.
(…) reflects the freezing cold (…) i’m amazed about your power of observation!
I love the deep impact of that picture with icy conditions
it brings out the finn in me 🙂
thanks a lot. it’s the polar-bear-gene you carry inside, heheh!
I’m freezing just looking at the photos, LOL 😀
…it’s conserving the youth, so freezing is nothing 😉
Maybe that’s where I went wrong many, many years ago, LOL. 😀
heheh!!
You DO know how to play with words 😉
yes, sometimes 😉
I think, not only sometimes… anytime you want 🙂
anytime the world tickles me out of the introversion…
Wow! Genuine admiration for your bravery. And your painting which is gorgeous!
i would say i was rather a scaredy cat with blind ambition, to be causeless admired now, but i take the one for the painting 😉
Joe sent me the link to this post because we were talking about swimming in ice cold water and he said you had done it. You are so brave! For me going swimming in the beginning of June when the water was still quite cold has been a huge accomplishment… even then straight from sauna. 🙂 It did feel amazing. Your painting is so beautiful!
give in, and you might find, against all your expectations, that you’ve found a new energising passion in life 🙂
actually i wanted to paint a serie of ice holes, but only this one remained. i’m supposed to plunge into the icy water again… for a new inspiration 😉
Thank you for the encouragement Sirpa… maybe one day I will try it out. 🙂
I am soooooooooooooooo glad, dear Sirpa, you are still alive and kicking and painting and and and…. *bbbrrr…* *hehe*
the very first moment was quite hard, fighting against the freezing cold water. some minutes of (psychotic) dancing in the snow (-25°) was following…feeling warm like hell!
Unbelievable!
what a lovely ice-hole perspective! 🙂
the painting or the kobe beef?!
Of course *smile*
I like you ice-smiling, too 🙂