A series of abstract works, featuring landscapes adapted to an imaginary and dreamlike context.

It all began with intense experimentation on transparencies and reflections using a variety of materials, during my research for the upcoming diploma exhibition at the Athens School of Fine Arts. From that point on, it developed into a body of work that has shaped the way I view and approach painting.

The initial intention was to create large pieces which, when combined together, can create an eerie environment inviting enough for the viewer to approach and explore the microcosms created by the material, leaving reality behind.

Eventually, it evolved into creating images that would spark the imagination and act as gateways themselves, open to experience or interpretation.

At the same time these pieces are produced in an intensively somatic manner in an attempt to control the flow of ink and manifest order amid the chaotic procedure at hand. The process can be viewed as reminiscent of a controlled sequence of movements or “action painting”, spreading ink and water on the paper’s surface, avoiding the use of brushes or other marking tools.

The scale of the paintings also grew larger, often “requesting” a kind of participation from the viewer as well, perhaps movement or active involvement of the whole body.

The elusive compositions are reworked and intensively revisited in a single session, for as long as the papers’ endurance allows.

The repetition of the method through the years as well as the use of gestures involved in the making of the paintings, ensure a relatively controlled end result. It is however during the final stage and while the paintings dry out naturally that their total transformation occurs.

Although experience allows me to predict the final outcome up to a point, the result always makes me wonder if I had any control in the first place.

The project in its entirety is a search for the opposing qualities of dream and nightmare, the isolation perceived in a dead-end and a safe place. Concepts that seem to be drastically different, but when combined they form the two sides of the coin, inspiring the same feelings.