- My blue, orange and yellow period touches upon numerous of political, anthropological, cultural and geopolitical current phenomenas that shape today’s society. Being more specific, this series consisting of sixty-five paintings portray the global sphere under the time of Coronavirus. The trichrome background, emphasizes on the emotional chaos that this situation has brought into our daily life. Characteristically, this trichrome setup found in all the backgrounds of my latest series not only highlights certain emotions that we have as individuals but also juxtaposes ?????one another. Talking about their color impact they have on the viewer’s eyes, those colors examine and experiment in depth our psychological performance under those tough times of the pandemic. In this approach of showcasing our emotional struggle I had to reflect on the psychology that those colors share within us. (Mention of all the colors used bellow how they blend together)—> also mention how those colors blend together Blue, a cool color, blue can seem icy, distant, or even cold. An example that supports my case is Picasso’s blue period. In this period Picasso used blue in order to create feelings of sadness or aloofness. Consider how a painting that heavily features blue, such as those produced by Picasso during his "blue period," can seem so lonely, sad, or forlorn. "Picasso intentionally painted in monochrome tones of blue which reflected his low psychological state, and portrayed that to the viewer of his artwork"(Color as Emotion, n.d.) His blue paintings portray destitute human beings. He chose the color blue deliberately. These paintings are deep and cold, signifying misery and despair — "to intensify the hopelessness of the figures depicted, such as beggars, prostitutes, the blind, out-of-work actors and circus folk, as well as Picasso himself and his penniless friends. At the time, Picasso even wore blue clothes"(Picasso and the, 2013). (Joke: Only 1% of clothes that I wear are blue, shame on you Picasso) Therefore, we come to a conclusion that I, decided to use the cold blue on the background to highlight the tension in the air that the virus has spread. Distant relationships, “inhumane” attractions and finally cold feelings.As we all know, orange is a combination of yellow and red. Orange is an energetic and powerful color. Color psychology states that orange calls to mind feelings of excitement, enthusiasm, and warmth. One will definitely be captured by the orange waves that decorate as a frame my paintings. As we have just discussed, orange is an energetic color thus, it has allowed me to put more emphasis on the strength of the waves. In this point, I would like to share with you that this series of paintings has completely been done in my balcony in Greece which faces the beautiful Mediterranean Sea as well as the beautiful Greek sun. This vibrant orange sun clearly reflects on the blue waves which shares its orange color. Even under, the cold times of the virus orange invokes a feeling of warm, sunny days. It is bright and cheerful and also makes me think of love, in all its manifestations. Taking into a consideration revolutionary works of art that resemble my orange wavy characteristic I would refer to no other than the French artist under the name of Claude Monet. As a resemblance to my paintings, in 1872, Claude Monet painted Impression Sunrise in which a tiny orange sun is the focal point of the image—its reflection illuminating the water’s surface. The painting gave its name to the impressionist movement.Orange became an important colour for all the impressionist painters. Having studied recent books on colour theory, they knew orange placed next to azure blue made both colours appear much brighter. Auguste Renoir painted boats with stripes of chrome orange straight from the paint tube. In conclusion, one will understand why my connection with Mother Nature and the ocean share similar characteristics whit the artists previously discussed. Vincent Van Gogh said and I quote: “There is no blue without yellow and without orange”. This brings us to our conclusive color which is no other that yellow. Yellow asymmetrical circles are placed on top of the blue background. You guessed right. It is the setup of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. This powerful contrast of yellow and blue shows dynamism in both nature and a person's dreams. In may case, its a colorful nightmare between nature and its inhabitants. For me there is no escape, minimal human interaction and only space for imagination from the environment that I see. Δεν την καταλαβαίνω αυτή την πρόταση.
- Psychocism is a term denoting my personal perception of the world that is constructed based on the way I see the past, the present and the future. Every day I encounter different people, I talk to them, I listen to their stories. In my art, I incorporate these stories and I intertwine them with my own. I put my interpretation of the moments of significance that have impacted me on paper, hence, I create the characters of the microcosm of my psychocism. There are two things figuratively called “players” that lead my interpretation of this microcosm, they are The Sun and The Moon. The Sun standing for Greece expresses the warmth of my surroundings back to my home and The Moon denoting Egypt. In my past, these two “players” have interacted in a way that has had a particularly strong impact on my way of thinking. I was born in an Egyptian family that lived in Athens, Greece; however, I was raised by a Greek couple that they knew. The case of my upbringing is peculiar as I grew up with two pairs of parents under the Greek sun. When I was 10 years old, however, one of the pairs decided to take me far away from home to the Egyptian city of Alexandria. I spent three years there. Three years of waking up to a fight for the freedom of doing my art. Egypt wasn’t hospitable to me. I would often remember what my mother told me once she came to see me, “Whenever you are sad, look at the moon. Look at the moon, and know that everything will be alright because a new day is coming”. I kept on looking and looking, and thinking about her words made me happy. I believed in the true love I received from my real Mom and Dad. It kept me going. It gave me the strength to keep on drawing although I was scorned for it in my new “home”. This parental love brought The Sun from Greece back to me and allowed me to feel warmth which was in contrast with the grey reality of my present. The intertwining of my two worlds inspired me to channel my emotions and express them with the bright colors of my markers. The Sun and The Moon would more and more often play leading roles in my works as I explore their influence on my perception of my surroundings and thus the creation of psychocism. They are two constants that contradict each other, but complement my world of psychocism through their repetitiveness in everyday life. These main characters although sometimes unnoticed in the haste of our daily routines, keep a fundamental position in the external reality that I express through my drawings. There is always a story within a story and one special recognition which has been given to details, another story unfolds and a introduces its new characters My art appears so ambiguous to some people that I am often asked if I do psychedelic drugs so that I can draw. Then I laugh. I do not and I have never relied on drugs to create my cosmos. The story I just told you, about what drives me to draw is too long of an answer to explain to just anyone who asks. In the present day, mixing monochrome and bright colours in my art expresses a certain reminiscence of the past that is interpreted through the eyes of the present. The past is the monochrome whereas the present and the future, the polychromes. I often link the moon to monochromatic emotional expression meanwhile I draw a fresh explosion coming out of the rays of the Greek sun. The past and the present are my inspiration to create what I imagine seeing in the future. shapes (dimensions; can also be empty, bright colours coming from pop art; some are more elaborate, the details of which create visual illusions that make the background stand out in the eye of the viewer; units of small universes within the stories of my central characters). a mixture of a lot of arts together: surrealism, cubism, pop art (the idea of taking what has been done in the past and mixing it all together to create the psychocism in the present; a new way of seeing the world) I constantly question things and therefore I’m not sure about anything. The only thing is an undeniable truth for me is that the universe has no limits (within a universe, there is always a universe and I always try to create my own one within the one I exist in (I take the various styles of the past in order to create the one of the future)