OUR MEMBERS
Search alphabetically by surname or browse and get to know our talented community of members
CARMEN TAMME
PHOTOGRAPHY, DIGITAL ART
(Cammegraphy)
HIAA BOARD MEMBER - VICE-CHAIRPERSON
"I love helping people and brands step into a visual story that feels true, personal and authentic. I’m always drawn to creative, artistic projects in all their forms."
My photographer journey began with a curiosity about people and the special moments of life. I’ve always been drawn not just to how things look, but to how they feel. Photography became a way for me to explore that space. Over time, this sensitivity evolved into a practice where intuition leads the process. I learned that my strongest work happens when I slow down, listen and allow people to be seen as they are. Whether I’m working with a brand, a creative entrepreneur, a couple, or a growing family, my approach stays the same: connection first. The visuals grow naturally from trust. My background blends artistic portraiture with brand thinking. I love helping businesses and individuals rise into a visual identity that feels aligned, human and intentional, something that tells a story and sparks interest. At the same time, I’m happy to be photographing life’s meaningful chapters: maternity, relationships, childhood and family bonds. These images are meant to become legacy pieces — galleries that gain emotional value over time and live on beyond the moment they were created. My creative vision is simple: to create images that people can feel. Work that holds presence, memory and meaning and that quietly accompanies people through their lives as the symbols of their legacy.
EDUARDO TEJEDOR
PRODUCT DESIGNER & VISUAL ARTIST
HIAA ADVISORY BOARD
Eduardo is a Mexican-born designer and artist based in Helsinki since 2016.
His versatile background includes product design (Ux/Ui), graphic design, visual branding, illustration, video games, and textile design.
Eduardo enjoys making patterns and prints by hand. His favorite topics for inspiration revolve around nature, culture, and food.
In his free time, Eduardo practices capoeira and plays folk music.
Eduardo contribuited to HIAA's website design and Visual branding as a supporting board member during 2024-2025.
MARIA TEPLYKH
SCULPTOR
HIAA BOARD MEMBER - CHAIRPERSON
Maria is a Russian-born sculptor. Being born in a family with several generations of scientists and
science professors, Maria unfortunately didn’t have a chance to pursue a career in arts, which didn’t stop her from attending artistic schools, and courses, studying under several masters and practicing art all her life. She has been doing sculpture for 9 years and is training to become an ikebana artist as well. Maria also creates jewelry.
Maria is actively involved in helping people deal with depression and other crises in life, which
started from her personal experience and grew into a long volunteering career. Therefore, many of Maria’s artistic works approach mental health issues and difficult topics in everyday life: environmental pollution, loss, narcissism – just to name a few. Maria also believes jewelry has
an important meaning in perseverance, coping, and healing.
Maria has a Finnish Master's degree in Business Administration and insights into museum marketing and e-commerce analytics. As a new HIAA Board Member for Marketing, she is very happy to finally marry her academic background with her long-life passion – art. Maria hopes to bring HIAA to a wider audience and provide additional value to HIAA members through active listening to their needs and wishes.
VITALIIA TER-AVAKIAN
CERAMICS ARTIST
Vitaliia Ter-Avakian is an accomplished ceramics artist, based in Helsinki and drawing inspiration from her Russian roots. She has eight years of dedicated experience. Her work is an elegant tribute to nature's beauty, expressed through the simplicity of black and white forms.
Vitaliia's artistic journey has been shaped by a diverse range of influences, studying under several renowned ceramic artists. Beyond crafting captivating ceramics, she shares her passion by teaching in small, intimate groups. Her artistry has graced exhibitions and symposiums across Russia, captivating audiences with its minimalist charm.
JEKATERINA TUROVSKA
SURREALIST ARTIST, PAINTER
HIAA BOARD MEMBER - TREASURER
I work full time in finance and accounting and currently serve as the treasurer at HIAA. While I truly enjoy my professional work, art has always been an important part of my life.
As a child, I spent many weekends studying drawing, painting, and clay sculpting at an art studio led by a teacher who graduated from the Saint Petersburg Repin Academy of Arts. Those early years of artistic practice shaped my creative outlook.
Over time, I developed a deep appreciation for surrealism and began creating in this style. My works reflect what I observe, feel, and experience.
CLAUDIA VASCONCELOS VARJOTIE
(Claudia V.)
PAINTING
HIAA SUPPORTING BOARDMEMBERS
"Because beauty is essential to life, it is the heart of my work."
Claudia Vasconcelos Varjotie is an artist and children’s book illustrator born in São Paulo, Brazil, who always knew that visual art was her most natural language. She graduated in Architecture and Urban Design and spent around 15 years running her own practice as an architect and interior designer, in which in between this time, the artist moved to Finland and chose to step away from the career to focus on raising her children.
During these years, she gradually returned to drawing and painting, eventually exhibiting works that carried a strong narrative quality, often resembling children’s book illustrations. A later return to Brazil brought a brief revisit to architecture, but by 2016, an invitation to illustrate marked a turning point, and she fully embraced her artistic path.
Since moving back to Finland in 2021, her work has evolved toward abstract art, reflecting a desire to move beyond narrative and realism into a more intuitive and expressive visual language.
After completing a Master’s degree in Creativity and Arts in Social and Health Fields in 2025, Claudia now works as an artist, illustrator, and facilitator of creative workshops for well-being.
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GLORIA VELASCO
PAINTING, DRAWING
As a Mexican Art Historian with a deep passion for painting, Gloria's artistic journey started in 2020 when she relocated to Helsinki, Finland. She embraced her painting practice with dedication and passion. That same year, she began formal studies at Vapaa Taidekoulu, where she continued to refine her skills and develop her own artistic language.
Gloria's work has been featured in several group exhibitions, and some of her paintings have been acquired by private collectors, including the HUS Helsinki, and Uusimaa Hospital District collections. Through her artistic practice, she continually discovers how profoundly her cultural background and personal experiences shape her art.
EULOGIO M. VILLALUZ JR
(DON VILLALUZ)
PAINTING, FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY, PAINTOGRAPHY, DIGITAL ART
HIAA BOARD MEMBER - EVENT MANAGER
"In today’s Artificial Intelligence age, digital cameras offer amazing effects and techniques as well as computer’s logic can present and allow manipulation of an image on its screen, to an incredible degree, but it has no concept of how things should be, and so… the infinity of creativity, that is left to the artist."
Dondon Villaluz - is a self-taught artist, painter, muralist, professional photographer/videographer and video editor, a graphic designer, a digital artist and a dreamer, who always dream of peace, unity and freedom in its truest sense. Digitally inspired by the works of Kevin Rolly and his oilgraphy, fascinated by the warm colors, lights and shadows of Rembrandt and currently a keen observer of spontaneous realism art movement of Jos Coufreur, VOKA, and Françoise Nielly.
He embraces new technology, new ways of creating images and art, as fellow artists have done long before him.
He draws his inspiration from the scenes around him, personal experiences, and social reality, working with digital media from his own original photographs and drawings, with a reflection into past representationalism, trying to make subtle comments on our culture.
