ARTIST
I’m a Finnish artist (b.1984) based in Oslo and make paintings and drawings. My background in architecture has shaped my visual eye, developed my critical thinking and created a philosophy for a method I use in my work. I like to explore the possibilities in materials, challenge them and be surprised. Nothing is ever discovered without curiosity and play. In art the only rules I have are the ones I create for myself -a thought I find comforting.
At the moment I work with forest as an experience. I’m looking for almost that fleshy dimension that can be found in something that is at the same time very ordinary as it is sacral. Those experiences are being projected and filtered through me and transferred on to paper and canvas.
CONTACT:
madleena.larivaara@gmail.com
+47 41108559
ARCHITECT
I graduated in 2012 from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture (KADK) with a Master of Arts in Architecture. My bachelor degree is from the department of architecture at the Technical University of Oulu, Finland.
YOGA THERAPIST
My first encounter with yoga was when I was still an athlete, in 2004. By my older sister's recommendation, I took part in a weekend course for ashtanga yoga with Petri Räisänen. Grown up by the rocky coast of north Finland, I felt something I had felt during those warm summer nights when immersed in a play among the trees, the rocks and the sea. So I kept practicing. Sometimes vigorously. Sometimes slowly. Studying and reflecting. Breaking up with yoga and meeting up again.
It wasn't until over twelve years after, when I found the possibility and momentum to look into that primal feeling of that first weekend more deeply, that I realised the nearness of yoga. It has always been there. And learning the tools to teach others gives me the honour to spread the beautiful teachings I have gained through the eighteen years of exploring. I have studied anatomy-based alignment technique at the yoga therapy school Tantravaya Yoga and I am a certified yoga teacher and therapist with 200 hour yoga studies from December 2015 and 300 hour yoga therapy studies from July 2016. I have travelled through Thailand, Laos, India and Denmark to study yoga and yoga therapy.
The yoga I teach is based on Hatha and Iyengar Yoga and is very safe for the body. I create a relaxing but focused atmosphere for the class and give a lot of cues to improve the quality of each posture -without forgetting the importance of silence and reflection.
I believe the depth of the experience is gained through a fluid but not rushed practice that can cultivate tools for managing the often stressful everyday life. I recognise the importance of space and create truly a warm and welcoming energy in the room.
The most influential teacher in my yoga path has been Shy Sayar, the Tantravaya Method developer and yoga therapist, who introduced me the world of safe alignment together with a profound, science based yoga philosophy.
I continue to study the principles of injury free yoga with my own practice alongside the yoga therapy and yoga classes I provide for my students. I now live on the outskirts of Oslo after spending two years on a South Norwegian archipelago, Flekkerøy. Living on an island, reconnecting with nature and art after eight years of living in Copenhagen was a break I needed from the intense years of working and studying.
I have taught at Pakhus Yoga, Tinkuy and Yoga Factory in Copenhagen and in Fylkeshuset, in the municipality of Kristiansand in Norway as well as students in schools in bydel St. Hanshaugen in Oslo. I have also taught one on one sessions as well as private group classes by inquiry.
I teach in English, Norwegian and Finnish.