80 years old | One should never lose play or idleness, says ceramic artist Anu Pentik – but once she lost herself

Dogs, more dogs! Soon, a whole pack of naive, ceramic dogs was born.

Ceramic artist for dogs Anu Pentik woke up last year eager and very early as is his wont.

It was a jubilee year for Pentik. It has been 50 years since both the founding of the family business and the beginning of his own career as an artist. The culmination of the year was an extensive exhibition at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum – a “complete work of art”, as the museum curator called it.

In the fall, Anu Pentik received the state award for design. After that, he thought that now we should make great, great art.

“But then I told myself no, do something really funny. Little dogs were born.”

The family three dogs are special Topi Pentikäinen, for the spouse’s 57 years. Anu Pentik doesn’t have time for them in the same way, and she can’t clean her hair.

But for the next ten years he wants to live like their dog.

“They are so wise, playful and good-natured until the end.”

And for a designer, it’s precisely the vainu that is everything, he says.

Following that, the family business Pentik was born, which he does not hesitate to call a success story.

“That’s what it is, almost a Cinderella story. A penniless, uneducated couple moves to Posio, and accomplishes such a thing.”

Even then, Anu Pentik was not afraid to implement her own vision. Part of Pentik’s story is that many saw a strange, ugly lump in the early Kaamoskivi candlestick. Pentik believed in the appeal of the “rough, natural Posio style”.

Vainu was right.

What Anu Pentik’s vainu tells now?

There is some kind of shortage ahead, he believes. Spiritual values ​​rise, and the home is wanted as a warm nest.

“People’s consumption is decreasing, but its quality is improving. Instead of frivolous consumption, we want meaningful things.”

In the mood of the 1990s recession, Pentik created the cozy Aino tableware series. It saved all of Pentik.

“Now we need something similar. Beauty that inspires hope.”

Hope is needed, because gas and energy have become more expensive, two stores in St. Petersburg are closed.

Pentik is not interested in wrestling.

“When lean times come, everything has to be rebuilt.”

Vainu also says that stores will be different in the future. In their current form, they will be neither profitable nor interesting.

But online stores are also not successful without physical contact.

“We come to the Pentik mecca and eat a homemade pie. We get experiences.”

Top Pentikäinen tells about his spouse in the holiday book he compiled, how he saw the young Anu making clay works from the clay dug from the potato field when he visited his parents’ cottage. He built a small wood-burning oven from beach stones.

The sight was fateful: her curious, experimental, playful fiancé.

And that clay.

First the clay and then the family, claim Pentik’s family members. Clay that goes everywhere, even on the plane.

For Anu Pentik, the most important thing is still people, working together.

“The truth is that I wouldn’t be Anu Pentik without a good group around me. In our field, no one does this work alone, no one.”

The most significant person is obvious.

“Without Top, there would be no interviews here.”

Topi Pentikäinen has been the best possible person to be with, says Anu Pentik.

“We are on the same level mentally, we grew up together. Everyone around us knows that Topi is that asset. Not a muse, but a resource.”

The hardest the time was not a recession, but the end of the 1970s. It was hard, real partying, the likes of which really don’t exist anywhere anymore, says Anu Pentik.

“I had rocketed from a little girl to all that glory. I party at the capital’s galas with celebrities, and a lot.”

Then one’s identity was in danger of being lost.

Once, Pentik was returning home to Posio when he felt the alarm bells ringing. Something had to be done.

Pentik bought a ticket to Milan instead of Posio at the airport. You are now alone for as long as you need, Topi said on the phone.

“In Milan, I took a map, went to a park, sat on the edge of a fountain and took off all my clothes. The police then came to say, madame, put your clothes on.”

That was enough, says Pentik.

“I had to prove to myself properly that I dare. I can rule myself.”

Anu Pentik returned to Posio.

A designer must protect his own head and vision, he believes.

He no longer answered hundreds of invitations.

“Then they stopped coming.”

Partying Anu Pentik still loves organizing. Birthday parties are celebrated for months. He asked his family for two musical evenings as a gift.

“Let’s listen to the double bass on the platform. Let’s taste kumpa and jam.”

After the party, the work continues. The new exhibition, in Finland or abroad, he doesn’t know yet, but he knows the theme.

“That’s when a man cries. How have I not realized that before.”