Notes from an Island

In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunstrm, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless island in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, where for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the visual artist, Tuulikki ';Tooti' Pietil, lived, painted, and wrote, energized by the solitude and shifting seascapes. The islands flora, fauna, and weather patterns provided deep inspiration which can be seen reflected in all of Janssons work, most famously in her bestselling novel The Summer Bookand her longstanding comic strip and novels for children, Moomin.Toves signature spare, quirkyprose, and Tootis subtle ink washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty, a chronicle of living peacefully in nature and observing the island's ecology and character. Notes from an Islandis both a work of artistic collaboration and an homage to the deep love the two women shared. One feels as if Jansson's journal, with Tooti's sketches tucked inside, has been unearthed like a treasure from under a pile of old quilts in the back of their rustic cabin.