I just finished – wrote and illustrated – “Raekoja plats”.

🔎 View the left side of “Raekoja plats” in full size (.jpg)

What is it?

“Raekoja plats” is like a guided tour of the Tartu Town Hall Square that I would really like to take part in myself. A bit of history, a bit of contemporary times, and a lot of personal touch.

What else is it about?

What inspires me to write and draw is how I bump into, collide with, and touch Tartu while living and working here. How I bump against other people. And often also against those houses on Town Hall Square. Sometimes as planned. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes with results, sometimes ineffectually.

There are many people and businesses in the Town Hall square that try to effectively bump into, collide with, and touch the world around them. But which beers that were drunk on the Town Hall Square, which stories that were told and heard at the hairdresser, or which projects undertaken in the offices around the Square are ultimately the most resultful? Time will tell.

🔎 View the central part of “Raekoja plats” in full size (.jpg)

At the same time, Town Hall Square looks exactly the way it does, because these buildings have managed to survive so many past people and businesses. (An example of the Arts of Survival!) They have survived all those years of being bumped into and collided with, all this drinking and ventures, wars and fires, rebuilding and real estate developing.

I believe that even though these buildings will outlive also us, we will still change Town Hall Square to some extent. But who will be most successful in this? Perhaps one of those software developers? Someone from the Town Hall? Or will things be directed from that mysterious optics store?

🔎 View the right side of “Raekoja plats” in full size (.jpg)

This work belongs to the same series as ‘The Bridges of Emajõgi‘, ‘On Riia Street’, ‘Back to Tartu’, and ‘sTARTUp Day’. I actually started with “Raekoja plats” already 12 months ago, and its development was like climbing up a difficult but necessary learning curve for me. I’m happy with what’s here now: I found a balance between lines, colors, and text.

I write and draw these stories in English from the beginning. I have also been involved in introducing Tartu in this language, and I think that while there is a pleasant amount of material about Tartu in Estonian, the selection of catchy info bites in English is small. Tartu needs the world to know more about us, and for that, we need bites with all kinds of flavors.

👉 Follow my sketchy wanderings around Tartu on Instagram: @sketchingpaas