One year ago, I was in Maldives, which many people list as one of their favorite vacation destinations. Unfortunately, I was working there, and even more sadly, I wasn't paid for it.

Everything started when the director of an art ograzination which has been supporting me during the tears, suggested me to do a project with Oxbow, a French surf wear company. I flew to Bordeaux where the corporation is headquartered and we agreed of a a social art project involving the participants of the long board world championship tour.

My idea was to organize a workshop for the surfers in Maldives and ask them to paint slogans on white T-shirts. Eric Bonnem, the CEO of Oxbow, liked my proposal and sent me right away to Biarritz and Guethary to to preliminary investigaton about surfing, a totally unknown world for me. We agreed that I was getting €5000 plus the royalties of the sales of the T-shirts mass produced based on those painted by the surfers.

Before driving to surfing villages we had a fancy lunch at a terrace of a five-star hotel with the director the renowned CAPC museum Charlotte Laubard, who didn't take her sunglasses off even when she was introduced to me. Eric had the idea of doing a show about our proect in the museum. I asked innocently that how could he decide the programming of the institution and he replied that I had no idea how much money he was giving them.

In the end of October, I was in Maldives and found myself in a private resort island which was a luxurious prison wihtout any public space - a real dystopia. I tried to communicate with the retarded surfers who told me things like "we don't believe in the global warming" and "we just surf anywhere, we don't care if they are democracies or dictatorships". I got them to paint me some t-shirts but the most popular slogan was "thank you Oxbow", the organizer of the competition in Maldives. It was a total flop.

I wrote some entries in my blog from Maldives and later heard that this was the reason or one of the reasons why everything was canceled. When I got back home, I was informed that Eric, the CEO, was fired too. I've been now waiting for a year and don't have any hope to get paid at all.

I've heard many people say that the artist should collaborate with corporations to earn money and gain extraordinary visibility but I'd recommend to get the check  before doing anything because the memory of the capitalists is very short - and they have always better lawyers than a humble artist could ever afford.

I read Sarah Thornton’s pseudo sociology bestseller Seven Days in the Art World. Sure it was entertaining to read about the clothes of the world’s top collectors, gallerists and artists but it made me feel like a Chinese immigrant selling sandwiches at the corner.

In Madrid, when the night falls, every corner is occupied by a Chinese with three subs and two cans of beer placed on a cardboard box. Obviously they dream of a better life but I imagine that it means rather a convenience store, not a three Michelin star restaurant serving molecular cuisine.

As an artist, I’m like the Chinese at the corner - I work, I survive, I have ambition. But thinking that I’d form one day a part of the art world described by Thornton is ridiculous. Dreaming doesn't cost anything but maybe I should stop thinking that I'm the next Takashi Murakami.

I'm really happy for my new Super Size Happy Meal Series. I was signing the screen print objects in Helsinki when they were flat but now I have all thirteen pieces in the studio assembled and I see how good they look.

This was a fast project. A month after my idea the works were conceptualized, designed, printed and signed. I like Eeris' speedy way to conceive projects. These were the last things Leo printed with his serigraphy machines, an outdated technic that has been replaced by other printing methods. I had given a list of Pantone colors to be used but Leo - understandably - didn't want to buy new pigments and used the rests he had. I like it more this way. I don't need to take all the decisions or have a total control a project when I'm working with skilled and intelligent people. I prefer the surprise - and the colors of the boxes are amazing!

Last week in Helsinki, many people asked me about my imminent plans. I told to everybody that I was coming back to the village and concentrating in my huge painting. No traveling but solely studio work. Painting is an activity that needs lot of time and peace. Things that I can't afford at the moment. I went today to the studio, looked around, smoked a cigarette and then heard my son crying.

This week, I've been changing my son's diapers, helping my daughter with her homework, cooking for the family, washing clothes, vacuum cleaning the car and doing groceries but I haven't been painting. I've been just replying to the most urgent e-mails and a little bit more. And this is how it's going to be for a while, and even getting worse when my son's nanny goes soon to Peru for two weeks and half. Greetings from your heroic painter!

I'm proud of my installation Riiko Sakkinen's Encyclopedia (revised and Updated Edition) at Kunsthalle Helsinki but this time making it happen wasn't a piece of cake. I wanted to use at least five projections to give an idea of the chaotic world full of images but I had only four video projectors in my use and the techinicians were uncapable to make one of them work properly. After being desperate for a while I got an idea of superpositioning the projectons and Simo, who was a great help during the week, got an idea of building a sculptural object of cardboard boxes and use it as a screen. And the ultimate improvised detail was to leave the back side of the boxes visible - they are basically Asian food - and cover the projection side with brown packing tape. The shabby material became an amazing glossy surface for my pictures of junk food and prostitution.

The inauguration yesterday was packed of politicians including the president of the republic Tarja Halonen. Obviously, they didn't come to see my stuff but the shameful exhibition of Estonian art in the main galleries of the Kunsthalle. It's the most insulting thing I've seen for a long time - a showcase of a dubious quality private collection of a businessman who dares even to show a portrait of himself at the Kunsthalle Helsinki. This is a crystal clear example how little the art has to do with the art and how it is basically an instrument for politics and power. You just could imagine that political leaders and entrepreneurs of this caliber would know to mask their malevolent plans better - now made very visible with their own art.