Imagiarium – A Painting Series Inspired by AI and Childhood Memories

During the spring and summer of 2023, I began thinking about how I could combine my art with my interest in new technologies. AI was already becoming a major topic at the time, but I wanted to explore how it could support my own artistic process.

In autumn 2023, I started experimenting with different image generators, and eventually I found a tool that felt right for me. Little by little, an idea began to take shape: an unusual portrait gallery where the main characters would not be humans, but cats, frogs, and rubber ducks.

Cats - A Natural Part of My Life and Art

Cats were an obvious choice for this project. They have always been present in my life — there was always at least one cat in my childhood home, and now I have two cats of my own who are constantly part of my everyday life.

Because I work from home, the cats are always nearby. They observe what I'm doing, settle directly in the middle of my workspace, or simply sleep beside me. Their personalities and presence are an endless source of inspiration, and that is why they naturally deserve a place in my art as well.

Frogs - Nostalgia and Fairy Tales

There has always been something especially charming about frogs for me. Seeing a frog in nature still makes me happy every time, but my fascination with them goes all the way back to childhood.

As a child, I had two stuffed toy frogs — one yellow and one burgundy. Their names were simply Petra and Petri. At one point, these frogs were my absolute favorite toys. I dressed them in clothes and pushed them around in a stroller. My mother was apparently slightly embarrassed that while other children had traditional dolls, I had two frogs wearing white cotton t-shirts.

The idea of the frog prince has also always fascinated me. As a child, frog toys were deeply important to me — and now, as an adult, my partner just happens to be named Petri. Perhaps the frogs were some kind of strange prediction after all.

Rubber Ducks - Lost and Found Again

Rubber ducks are also tied to my childhood memories.

When I was little, I had a red rubber duck. One day, while visiting Suomenlinna with my mother, I was floating the duck in the water when the waves suddenly carried it away.

I didn't hesitate for a second — I immediately tried to run after it and rescue it myself. My mother managed to stop me before I could throw myself into the water, though I protested loudly.

Fortunately, the story had a happy ending. A nearby boat noticed what had happened, retrieved the duck, and brought it back to me.

Perhaps it was exactly this dramatic little event that made the rubber duck such an emotionally important character for me.

Today, we still have a few rubber ducks in our bathroom as cheerful decorative objects — small reminders that even tiny objects can carry surprisingly large emotions and memories.

Imagiarium – A World Built from Memories

All of these childhood memories, nostalgic emotional connections, and fairy-tale-like images intertwine within my Imagiarium portrait series.

AI functions as a sketching tool in my process. I provide starting ideas, and the system suggests visual directions that I continue developing further myself.

My paintings combine realistic portrait painting with imaginative details: cats, frogs, and rubber ducks wear unusual — sometimes even absurd — headpieces while posing in front of richly detailed and story-like backgrounds.

This series is not simply an experiment in combining AI and traditional art — it is also a journey into memories, nostalgia, and the ways seemingly small things can leave a lasting mark on our lives.