“There is a lot of color, and many people feel threatened by color. I remember from Vadsø when I went with my father to ‘the city’ once, we wore gákti and some were very provoked by our colorful clothes and shouted things at us. I realized it was because we were the only ones wearing these clothes, because everyone else had stopped wearing them, because of being pointed at. When I asked father if we also had to stop wearing gákti so as not to be bothered by strangers, then father said we couldn't stop showing who we were, and that we had a right to be who we are, just as much as they have to be who they are, that we had to be strong, and not throw the colors away from us, even if they shouted that it hurt their eyes to see us!”

Det blir mye farger, og mange føler seg truet av farger, jeg husker fra Vadsø da jeg var med far til «byen» en gang, vi hadde på oss gákti og noen ble veldig provosert av de fargerike klærne våre og ropte ting til oss. Jeg skjønte at det var det, for det var bare vi som hadde de klærne vi hadde på oss alle andre hadde sluttet pga pekinga, da jeg spurte far om vi også måtte slutte med å gå
i gákti for å ikke bli plaget av fremmede, så sa far at vi kunne ikke slutte med å vise hvem vi var, og at vi hadde rett til å være hvem vi er, like mye rett som de har til å være som de er, at vi måtte være sterke, og ikke kaste fargene fra oss, selv om de
ropte at det gjorde vondt i øynene å se oss!

What else we may see in these works of art:

Kundalini, energy located at the base of the spine, the divine force.
Sacral chakra, carrying Shakti and Shiva, the female and male life forces.
Sunspot flares to ride upon, diving into earth atmosphere, then glaciers, oceans, deserts, mountains and jungles.
Jungle, where spirit consciousness and uncontacted tribes hide from logging, mining and ranching stallos.
Underlying forms, crystals, emerging from stone, liquid and vapor, conducting through organic and inorganic matter and beyond, transmitting between landscape power points, relay stations, stone databases.
Windmaster Biegolmái dancing snowstorms, leaving behind glaciers, ice caves, mountains, polar ice humming in tune.
Embryos, who like Beaivvi, from conception through birth, burst out with each their own lava and heat.
Disturbances from increases in the speed of the solar wind from coronal holes and mass ejections. Acceleration of the precipitating particles and the resulting ionization and excitation of the atmosphere emitting light, giving form to aurora borealis.
From inside the sea looking upward to sky. Oceans above mountains. Swimming with whale, inside whale, becoming whale.
Streams of lava revisiting the womb, part of the choreography between earth’s lava core spinning faster than its surface, and the celestial parent.
An omniverse vision from she who always is, from the future, traveling back in time, to find us now, Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari.

Hva annet kan vi se i disse kunstverkene:

Kundalini, energien ved bunnen av ryggraden, den guddommelige kraft.
Sakralchakra, som bærer Shakti og Shiva, de kvinnelige og mannlige livskreftene.
Solens stormer som skyter piler til å ri på, dykke ned i jordens atmosfære, deretter isbreer, hav, ørkener, fjell og jungler.
Jungelens åndelig bevissthet og ukontaktede stammer som gjemmer seg fra tømmer-, gruve- og jordbonde-Stalloer.
Underjordiske former, krystaller som oppstår fra stein, væske, damp og ild og formes gjennom organisk og uorganisk materie, kringkaster det videre mellom sieidienes indre nettverk og steindatabaser.
Vindmester Bieggaolbmái som danser opp snøstormer, etterlater seg isbreer, isgrotter, fjell og polarisen nynner i harmoni.
Embyoer, som Beaivvi, fra unnfangelse til fødsel, bryter ut med hver sin lava og varme.
Forstyrrelser fra økninger i solvindens hastighet fra koronale hull og masseutkast. Akselerasjon av de utfellende partiklene og den resulterende ionisering og eksitasjon av atmosfæren som sender ut lys som gir nordlyset form.
Omsluttet av havet ser vi opp mot himmelen. Hav over fjell. Svømmer med hvalene, er inne i hvalen, blir hval.
Strømmer av lava som besøker livmoren vår igjen, en del av dansen mellom jordens lavakjerne, som spinner raskere enn sin overflate, og den celeste forelderen.
En omnivisjon fra hun som alltid er, hun fra fremtiden, som reiser tilbake i tid, for å finne oss nå, Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari.

***

Utstillingen feirer kraften, gleden over fargene og deres innvirkning på livene våre. Lysets fargeaspekt i alle dets brytninger, som havet, representerer urvesenet i oss alle.

Det store formatet er eksplosivt, men virker rolig når det sees og oppleves. Bildene er en utforskning av hvordan farger uttrykker en persons innerste følelsesliv. Men mens farger vekker glede, utløser de også uro hos noen.

Marys kunstverk bryter ut av hverdagslivets grå fengsel, bryter alle usynlige forpliktelser, den triste byråkratiske gråheten til livstrengende trelldom, der mangelen på farger er iøynefallende i samfunnet. Som i et vakuum, hvor fargen og fargegleden er undertrykt, fjernet fra enhver støttende sosial struktur, nærmest tabu.

Hvert bilde er en visjon i seg selv, en kaskade av farger som roterer slik chakraene gjør i henhold til Vedisk tradisjon.

Fargenes magi i Marys mytiske univers viser oss at livets reise er en kilde til læring, utfoldelse og skapelse, en skapelse som utfolder seg innenfra ens eget hjerte og ut.

Frihet åpner alle porter, fra mørke til lys, en ny æra. Et landskap åpner seg der ditt indre barn danser i fargehavet. Gleden og pusten fra inspirasjonens magi smelter sammen med skaperverket.

Styrken i Marys uttrykk er at hun gjennom sin livsprosess forvandler sin indre mytiske reise til et verktøy som har en gripende effekt på alle den berører.

Ser vi varselet, der fokus dreies fra mørket til lysets fargespekter, med glimt av glede og humør servert på paletten til vidda, et vidstrakt fjellplatå, og alle dens lysbrytninger i likhet med havet, uendelighetens mor?

Kunstner Merete Kjeldsen, Bergen

*
The exhibition celebrates the power, the joy of colors and their impact on our lives. The color aspect of light in all its refractions, like the sea, represents the primordial being in all of us.

The large format is explosive, but seems calm when seen and experienced. The pictures are an exploration of how colors express a person's innermost emotional life. But while colors evoke joy, they also trigger anxiety in some people.

Mary's artwork breaks out of the gray prison of everyday life, breaks all invisible obligations, the sad bureaucratic grayness of life-threatening servitude, where the lack of color is conspicuous in society. As in a vacuum, where color and the joy of color are suppressed, removed from any supporting social structure, almost taboo.

Each image is a vision in itself, a cascade of colors that rotate as the chakras do according to Vedic tradition.

The magic of the colors in Mary's mythical universe shows us that life's journey is a source of learning, unfolding and creation, a creation that unfolds from within one's own heart and outwards.

Freedom opens all gates, from darkness to light, a new era. A landscape opens up where your inner child dances in the sea of ??colour. The joy and breath of the magic of inspiration merges with creation.

The strength of Mary's expression is that through her life process she transforms her inner mythical journey into a tool that has a gripping effect on everyone it touches.

Do we see the indications, where the focus is turned from darkness to the color spectrum of light, with glimpses of joy and mood served on the palette of the tundra, a vast mountain plateau, and all its refractions of light like the sea, the mother of infinity?

Artist Merete Kjeldsen, Bergen

***

Silje Karine Muotka Facebook 2.12,22

«Det er så mye mørkt ute i verden nå. Vi trenger lys og kjærlighet. Det er dette jeg har malt», sier Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari
Bildene hun har malt er vakker inn i sjela! En veldig fin artikkel i Ságat om utstillingen i Romssa Dáiddasiida/Tromsø Kunstforenings regi.
Jeg glemmer aldri følelsen av å åpne den aller første samiske barneboka som kom året etter jeg var født. Det var Ámmul og den blå kusinen / Ámmul ja alit oarbmealli.
Ikke bare var det så fantastisk fordi det snakket til hele min magiske barnetenkning, men det var noe så utrolig som ei samisk barnebok. Jeg var så lykkelig som man kan være. Jeg tegnet blå kusiner, røde kusiner, grønne kusiner og gule kusiner. Og følte meg selv enda mer som en prinsesse i kofta.
Gjennom boka ble jeg løftet som et samisk barn, og jeg fikk oppleve stolthet, at min forestillingsverden ble synlig og jeg fikk bekreftet alt som jeg var med denne skatten av ei barnebok. I koftekanten min - så hviskes suset av de magiske fargekusinene til dags dato.
Alle bildene som hun har malt i denne utstillingen vil kunne løfte enhver person i det samme rommet som bildet befinner seg.
Hjertet gleder seg! Våre samiske kunstnere gir håp, tro og styrke på alle måter. I hjertet tenker jeg at den kraften kan ingen være uberørt av.
Giitu??

*
Silje Karine Muotka. president of the Norwegian Sami Parliament, places this exhibition in its larger cultural and historical context:
"There is so much darkness in the world now. We need light and love. This is what I have painted", says Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari.
The pictures she has painted are beautiful to the soul! A very nice article is in Ságat about the exhibition organized by Romssa Dáiddasiida/Tromsø Art Association.
I will never forget the feeling of opening the very first Sami children's book ever that came out the year after I was born (1976). It was Ámmul and the blue cousin / Ámmul ja alit oarbmealli.

Not only was it so wonderful because it spoke to my entire magical child thinking, but it was something as incredible and amazing as a Sami children's book. I was as happy as can be. I drew blue cousins, red cousins, green cousins and yellow cousins. And I felt even more like a princess in my gákti.
Through the book, I was uplifted as a Sami child, and I got to experience pride. My imaginary world became visible and it confirmed everything that I was because of this treasure of a children's book. In the edging of my gákti, the whisper of the magical color cousins are there to this day.
All the pictures that she has painted in this exhibition will be able to lift any person in the same room as the picture.

The heart rejoices! Our Sami artists provide hope, faith and strength in every way. In my heart, I think that no one can be untouched by that power. Giitu

***

It is simply a magical experience to visit Romssa Dáiddasiida/Tromsø Art Association just now. It is as if it has been enchanted, like Kaisa's forest in the movie Kaisa's Enchanted Forest. But, this time it is Mary's enchanted world that we get an insight into. In this world, everything is big, strong and intense. The light is intense, the joy is intense, and life is intense.

"I've never been so happy as now. This is the top. It can't get any better than this, I'm so happy" says artist, Mary Allonieida Sombán Mari, about the exhibit Beaiváša Bealvvi Máhccan 2020-2024/The Suns’ Day of Return 2020-2024.
And this says a lot, because the artist has plenty to show of earlier major works. Among recent achievements may be mentioned that she won the Year's Most Beautiful Book 2021 award with Beaivvaš Mánát / Leve blant reptiler, which was also nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. "I was furious when I wrote that book! It was, among other things, about Norwegianization," she says. The contrasts are large, fierce and fantastic, because the pictures at the Art Association convey anything but rage, but are also connected, something text from the exhibition points to:
“There is a lot of color, and many people feel threatened by color. I remember from Vadsø when I went with my father to ‘the city’ once, we wore gákti and some were very provoked by our colorful clothes and shouted things at us. I realized it was because we were the only ones wearing these clothes, because everyone else had stopped wearing them, because of being pointed at. When I asked father if we also had to stop wearing gákti so as not to be bothered by strangers, then father said we couldn't stop showing who we were, and that we had a right to be who we are, just as much as they have to be who they are, that we had to be strong, and not throw the colors away from us, even if they shouted that it hurt their eyes to see us!”
The pictures are really big. We wander with Mary among the grand pictures. "There is so much darkness out there in the world now. We need light and love. This is what I have painted," she says. It is as if Mary has yoiked the pictures, that she has yoiked love, light and joy. It's an explosion of intense feelings. Here, she is unbounded. There are no barriers or restrictions here, no suppression, everything has been given free play, everything is so big, so beautiful. And the artist simply radiates. "I had visions of blowing up these images, because they were very small," she says.
And the pictures really are big! And that's precisely what gives this dramatic effect. The colors, feelings, light and energy in the pictures are difficult to describe. They must be experienced, because there is something more than just the pictures that are present in the room. Mary conveys an enchanted world which she constantly visits herself, and which she now shares with us.
Elin M. Wersland
___________________________

Mary loves the Sun, maybe more than most Sámi, both because she comes from a traditional reindeer family that didn't have a permanent home until she was six years old, but also because of the strength of her indigenous Sámi understanding. Her second name - Ailonieida, daughter of Ailo - could just as easily be Beaivvášnieida - daughter of the Sun - as Sámi people generally consider themselves children of the Sun, Beaivvášmánát, which is Indeed the title of her recent volume of poetry.
Mary sees the world around her with the intensity of the sun's light - refracted both into the primary colors held dear by the Sámi, and into the entire rainbow. Her latest book, Arvedávgeriikii, To the Rainbow Land, now nominated for Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize has to do with each color of the rainbow. "I have written about the colors. Each color has its own little story, and as there are seven colors in the rainbow, I have written seven completely new adventures." Gunhild Sara, editor in Davvi Girji says "Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari has written a great and important book about how the rainbow came to be, and how the colors merged at the midsummer festival and became the rainbow."

I Mary Ailoniieida Sombán Maris nye barnebok tar hun og illustratør Sissel Horndal oss til regnbuelandet og fargenes verden.

En skapelsefortelling om hvordan regnbuen ble til. En midtsommer blir alle fargene, personifisert som reinsdyr, og alle dyrene invitert på fest til Rássegáldu. Alle koser seg helt til det begynner å regne. Torden og Lyn sammen med den store Gullskyen ankommer festen. Denne natta bli fargene venner og regnbuen skapt. Regnbuen, som er jordens smykke, berører oss alle og minner oss om våre egne indre krefter og særegne farger som vi kan lage vår egen superstyrke av.

Mary elsker solen, kanskje mer enn de fleste samer, både fordi hun kommer fra en tradisjonell reindriftsfamilie som ikke hadde et fast hjem før hun ble seks år gammel, men også på grunn av styrken til hennes fast urfolks perspektiv. Hennes andre navn - Ailonieida, Ailodatter, kunne like gjerne være Beaivvášnieida - Soldatter - som samer generelt anser seg som barn av solen, Beaivvášmánát, og som faktisk er tittelen på hennes nyeste poesi bok.
Mary ser verden rundt seg med intensiteten av solens lys - brutt både inn i primærfargene, holdt kjære av samer, og inn i den fulle regnbuen. Hennes nyeste bok, m, Til Regnbueland, nominert til Nordisk råds barne- og ungdomslitteraturpris 2023, har med hver regnbuefarge å gjøre, én rein for hver farge.

Mary Ailonieida Sombán Mari and Sissel Horndal (ill.): Arvedávgeriikii. Picture book, Davvi Girji, 2022. Nominated for the 2023 Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize.