At the preview of the exhibition Muu maa, in Joutsa, Finland there was coffee offered after the speeches. A friend, who attended the preview took these photographs of the coffee cups waiting for the guests. A great collection of coffee cups.  It was a sunny day and warm and a great opening of the show.

The artists were introduces by Merja Metsänen. Yours truly made a speech about the importance of art, residency and society.

Part of the exhibition "Muu maa = Other country"
I am very concerned about the Icelandic goat race and have wanted for quite a while to make art for the goats. Part of my concept is to make art from discarded material. The goat works are made from the coarse hair of goats, material that is left when it has been dehaired from the cashmere that is a desired material. Also discarded wooden boards and old desk tops. The name of the work is The Last Goat of Iceland. That would be the most frightful thing, if the goats vanish from earth because humans can't take care of precious things.
Very satisfying.

I visited a goat farm. Ronin vuohitila in central Finland  I feel that even if the Icelandic goats are closest to my heart I should visit goats around the world when possible. And it is always worth it. Especially when you go to farms where the goats are well treated and they are lovable and curious creatures.  Goats are very sociable and curious animals where ever you go in the world. These goats were adorable and they looked at me, nibbled at my clothes and shoelaces to get the taste of my person. There are around 6000 of the suomivuohi, the Finnish goat today. So they are not an endangered species which is so good.
The Icelandic goat species is an endangered species and counting between 800 and 900 animals now. That is why I am making art about goats, to present them to the world. 
There should be more goats around and goats' milk. People who can't tolerate cows' milk are often fine with goats' milk. Different proteins. Instead of processing soy beans or something else and turning it into pretend milk I think it is much wiser to just milk a goat. Unless people are vegans.
On this farm were also two horses. They were both of the Suomen hevonen race which is a very gentle horse race and good worker. Only about 500 suomen hevonen horses are working horses today. Horses are excellent workers in the forest during winter as they destroy much less that the tractors. More pictures of the Suomen hevonen
and here too
I have more goat pictures here.
 

I like this image. Actually photographed it myself in the late afternoon when the sun is hovering above the horizon just about to set.
These are the crosses that make the giant cross stitch goat "The last Goat".

There has been progress with the last goat. Not only the work I have done but SPRING is here and the grass around the great cross stitch goat is growing and it is of course GREEN and keeps growing and the question is how much should I allow the grass to grow? Should it cover the goat? The whole idea behind this work is the endangered goat species of Iceland. I have done some practical non artistic work (is work ever non artistic?) searching for cashmere in Iceland as you can see on my goat/cashmere site:  http://weberstrasse-cashmere.weebly.com/
The two other pieces are made with old desktops, wall cladding, and last but not least hand spun goat-hair-thread. I try to stick to the reusing, recycling, up-cycling idea.
The big goat on the ground is akin to the Great White Horse of Uffington
The Great Goat of Iceland or The Last Goat of Iceland as its correct name is, could be akin to the mythical goat Heiðrún. That is a good thought.