“I want my paintings to be embellished with something that distinguishes a painting from a photo“
How and when did you start dealing with Art systematically? I don’t know a moment in my life without art. Since I was a child, I copied the illustrations of fairy tales. As I grew up, I began studying art and then turning my passion into my profession. Life then made me take a different direction as the advent of computer graphics did not reflect my technical way of creating, so I gradually approached and deepened classical art and, therefore, oil painting.
Is one born or made an artist? Every talent needs study and daily exercise to sensitize the hand, eyes, and mind to external stimuli to make them their own and then bring out new ideas. I think that the Artist is the right mix of being and becoming. Let’s not forget that art is also business, and often what is quoted does not always appeal to the masses. But I think that when one is a true Artist, then both the public and the critics agree.
In which current or movement would you include your works? I apparently have a realistic style. But I am still young and continuously looking for the right technique and the message I want to give, and I don’t like to be mentally trapped in a category that can define me for the rest of my life because art, like the human soul, is continually evolving.
Where do you get your inspiration from? Technically I try to approach hyperrealism, even as a technical challenge, although I am aware that I am still very far from mastering that technique. Once I have achieved my goal, I want my paintings to be embellished with something that distinguishes a painting from a photo.
Are there celebrities or other artists who have influenced your work? Each historical era has an artist that I observe to grasp its secrets and am fascinated by it. I love the lights and volumes of Caravaggio, the melancholy and romanticism of the pre-Raphaelites, or the ethereal incarnations of Bourgueraux. I love Hopper’s sense of loneliness or Magritte’s dream fantasy. But indeed, what affects me the most is what surrounds me. The emotions, the experiences that I then elaborate and put on the canvas.
What is the biggest challenge you have set for yourself as an artist?
Never lose the desire to get involved and the sensitivity that allows me to represent what I feel on the canvas.
How acceptable is Art in Greece today and what role is it called to play in public? I know very little about Greek reality as I live purely in Italy. I went to Greece for vacation, and I love the Greek people who go on, despite the difficulties with the smile and the welcome that distinguishes them. People with so much history and art behind it have the duty to spread art from an early age because art is beauty and hope.
What are your future plans? Grow as an artist and as a teacher. Teaching art makes me feel alive. I am in contact with people who then repay my efforts with their works and their affection. I hope one day to open my art school and be recognized as an artist worldwide.
Βιο. I was born and raised with a pencil in hand. My studies were: the institute of art, the school of comics, and the academy of fine arts in Rome. I worked as a decorative ceramist, but my primary profession is teaching arts. I have been teaching painting, comics, and drawing for about 22 years. Since 2011 I have been collaborating with the opera house in Rome. I have worked as a costume designer for Francesco Zito, a famous set designer and costume designer of ballet and opera. I also designed jewels for Ansuni, one of the oldest jewelers in Rome, for which I created a vessel for hosts and earrings. I made decorations on fabrics for a fashion boutique and walls for children’s rooms. I won the Phidias Prize with a sculpture on the theme of the emancipation of humanity from subservience and a gold medal for the creation of a nativity scene at a day center, where I taught young people with mental problems.
