Väinämöinen Avatar

Just for those folks that have been asking about this,
one of my avatars:

The avatar is actually a mosaic of many smaller photos and can be found on this site:

http://web.mac.com/kanneltaja/Kasvot/Etusivu/Etusivu.html

It is a Finnish site promoting a kantele music event:

Faces of Väinämöinen is kantele player Timo Väänänen’s Doctor of Arts work for the Folk Music Department of Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy. The project includes a concert, an exhibition and a photographic series. The multi-disciplinary project ponders the symbolism and sexuality of the kantele through the means of music, dance and photography. In the pictorial work, which unifies all the project’s various thematic threads, 144 kantele players unite to form the Faces of Väinämöinen, from the Gallen-Kallela painting The Departure of Väinämöinen.

Concert on 27.02 and 28.02.2008 at 19.00, Vanha Ylioppilastalo, Music room, Helsinki

For those unfamiliar with Kalevala epic hero, Old Väinämöinen, he was the inventor of this small harp-like instrument, the kantele.

Examples of the music from the instrument as well as a tune written that influenced by the saga can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=0JRaBoiN0_A

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=hNz4zJobg58