My Greystones: Kaisa Ypya

The lady may look like she just beamed down from Planet Amazonia, but the Scrabble-named Kaisa Ypya actually hails from a small, no-horse town in deepest, darkest Finland.

That Kannus couldn’t quite give Kaisa – or her two sisters – the widescreen life they knew was out there saw the three Ypya girls hit the road once they were old enough to find the airport by themselves.

Bouncing around the globe, it would take this Finnish firestarter a few years to find the home that fit her like a käsine, the young Ypya nipper spending time living in Vredenburg, just outside Cape Town, and in Henley-on-Thames just across the water, before finally moving to Greystones in 2007.

Suddenly, that wanderlust was stopped in its tracks, as Kaisa’s new home-away-from-home took a hold. 

And now, with regular escapes into the surrounding woods, and teaching classes in Signal Arts Centre whilst constantly exploring her own fascination with lino prints, mosaics and, most recently, graffiti, Kaisa is very much a Greystones girl.

To the point that, whenever she heads to Kannus to visit her mum and dad, Ms Ypya feels like a tourist there. Heck, trekking around Finland these days, this particular Finn even needs a map.

So, given that we’re a town that loves our artists, Greystones is lucky to have Kaisa as one of our own now.

And if we should all wake up one morning to find the town covered in art, well, at least we now know where to start looking for the spray cans…