Kuusamo ARK's curated artist for September is David Popa from New York, who currently lives in Finland https://www.davidpopaart.com/

Popa became interested in visual arts through his artist father, Albert Popa, who was one of the first graffiti artists in New York. At a young age, David studied traditional painting with his father, but adventures outside the studio drew him to art full-time. Interest in street art and contemporary muralism is still the catalyst for Popa's artistic work. Popa uses natural pigments mixed with natural water to create site-bound, momentary earthworks that are recorded using a drone. Popa paints large-scale works mainly on the islands and islets of the Nordic countries. The works are documented and presented in different formats: as photographs, short films, and recently also as NFT works.

During the residency, Popa realized his first animal-themed land artwork on the top of Ruka. The temporary work of art could only be seen from a bird's eye view and disappeared with the rain in a few days.

After the work was completed, Popa gave a lecture and a workshop, where he talked about his work and how a place-specific work of art is created using natural materials, and how to create a thriving business by doing what he loves.