The government of Spain gave us €2000 when we bought a new automobile a couple of months ago. Now we get again surprisingly another €2000 for giving life to our son who was born on Friday. I suppose that this is how we fight together against the recession - more kids and cars.

For my astonishment, the government of Finland is asking me to pay €100 to have my son registered as a citizen. Sounds like a strange business that a Finnish person has a child and that he must pay a good amount of money to obtain the citizenship for the newborn.

I knew that Finland has one of the stricktest and upleasent immigration policies in Europe but I didn't imagine that their xenophobia could reach even half Finnish-born people. Now I think that my son is not going to Finnish and maybe he will be thanking me later for this, because he doesn't have to do the military service in the Arctic Circle and be trained to fight against the Russians.

This also made me think that I want to give-up my Finnish citizenship but I read on the government's website of the government that of that they would charge me €400.

I'm continuing the series of contemporary calligraphy on Chinese hanging scrolls (the next one is my Favorite Millionaires). Also I'm planning my installations for two shows curated by Raúl: Twilight of the Idols in Madrid and Ese Obscuro Objeto del Deseo in Monterrey, both in May. And I'm still working on the big catalog Riiko Sakkinen Image Club, the dead line is coming very close. It should be out for the opening of my show in Málaga.

In fact, I'm not really concentrating in any of those things in the studio but being stand-by to rush to hospital any moment. My son was due yesterday and I have the car key in the hand all the time. All the other projects feel now less important compared with giving life.

Once again, I got a message from a young artist asking me how to make it in the art world. I'm flattered that they ask me, although I'm making myself the same question every day. From the point of view of somebody beginning his career (in Finland) I might be a model to follow but they of course don't know how little I earn and how far away I'm from the really successful artists exhibiting regularly in the biggest biennales and the most massive museums.

When I've been conducting my lectures Young Artist's Survival Kit in some Universites, I've told to the students that no famous artist would bother to tell them his Art World tips for so little amount of money. It sounded ironic but made myself feel miserable. I think I'm really nobody to advice anybody. If you need help how to make in in the art world, I recommend you to read The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style, a unique book on the social dynamics of today’s art world.

Finally, know that many art people loathe the Art Facts ranking of the artists but I admit that I follow it every now and then and I was delighted when I recently noticed that I had entered in the Top 5000.

I thought that successful artists must be beautiful. That's why I was dreaming of fixing my teeth and decided to do it when I got a a monthly grant from the Finnish Art Council this year. I paid €3000 and now I have the braces in my mouth for at least 36 months.

Horace wrote Carpe diem quam minime credula postero – "Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future. But  decided to suffer a couple of years and then smile. Maybe it changes my public image totally. Now I tell all the photographers that they can't show my teeth and I look always extremely serious in the magazines.

Other positive thing is that I could lose weight. I can't eat burgers, pizza, kebab, candy, bread, apples and many other things. All eating is uncomfortable. Even smoking is less fun now when the braces have changed the position of my lips. At least I can drink whatever I want.

Cecilio wants to have in the catalog my statements and I've been reading my own interviews and texts trying to find the best slogans.

They always ask me about the pop art but I think that's something historic. My art is turbo pop.

In a perfect world there would be no need for art.

My art is about cleaning the house and ethnic cleansing.

I do drawings, but cannot draw. I do paintings, but cannot paint. I do other things, too, but cannot do that either. It is a tragedy, but tragedies are appreciated in Arts.

Good art is irreverent, excessive, controversial, incorrect, irritating, bad behaving, ironic, funny, and beautiful.

I agree with Picasso's that "the art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy". My enemies are everywhere, I shoot to all the directions and bite the hands that feed me.

I like things I don't understand.

I always disagree. I’m always wrong.

I'm working on the catalog that will be published in the occasion of my solo show Escribid a Papá Noel y pedid Libertad (Write to Santa and Ask fro Freedom) at Gacma in Malaga. I have thousands of ideas and I change my mind several times a day about both the concept and the detail of the publication. I don't now how Ana, the designer, and Cecilio, the editor, can still seem to be so positive and relaxed.

First, I said that I didn't want a traditional biography but then I thought that it's better to make my gallerist happy and do some conventional things. Now I decided to add a profile. I love profiles of Pokémons (figthting abilities and weapons) and prostitutes (breast size and price). Then I was reading Xiaolu Guo's 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth which begins with Fenfang's profile for Beijing Film Studios - Extra Registration Form. (I read now only Chinese literature and when I moved to Spain I earned my living doing extras in films.) My profile is a mix between a film extra, prostitute and an anime character.

PROFILE
Name: Riiko Sakkinen
Date of birth: July 2, 1976
Animal zodiac: Dragon
Star sign: Cancer
Class: Underdog
Place of birth: Helsinki
Residence: Cervera de los Montes, Toledo, Spain
Height: 174cm (I've added one centimeter)
Weight: 72kg (this is not my actual weight but my target)
Shoe size: 42
Eye color: Grey
Hair color: Blond
Skin color: Very light
Affiliation: Liberation Army of Cheeseburgers
Syndicate: Image Club
Rank: Field Marshal
Attacking type: Weapons of mass destruction
Defending type: Rebellion
Weaponry: Hello Kitty Sarin
Blood type: Red
Ideology: Cryptical