http://greekproductsabroad.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/zachou-spyridoula/
Spyridoula Zachou
My blog is filled with color, emotion
and movement.Spiridoula Zachou is listening to music or reading poems
when at the same time give birth to an artistic “role playing” in her
paintings! A true child that needs creativity like birds need
sky.Personally, I love the way she mixes words and figures, a genuine
“story telling”! I strongly suggest you to visit her site, and read her paintings!
Bio
Spyridoula Zachos was born in Corfu.She
attended her first art lessons at school on the island, by Spyros
Alamanos.Was taught from painter-sculptor Angel Gerakaris, the
painter-decorator Nerina Lymperopoulou , attended a series of seminars
and the famous school AKTO in Applied Painting with professors Kaskoura
Nick, Nick and Catherine Navridis Apostolidou.Her professional
experience extends to Interior Design, teaching architectural design
and history of Art in IEK School.As a freelancer, she illustrates
children’s stories, books, music album, etc.Spyridoula Zachou has also
designed and constructed the set and costumes for dance theater
performance group” Ionian Act”, the sculpture awards on the festival” Be
There Corfu Animation festival 2011”.Her works can be seen in many
private collections in Greece and abroad, in Corfu Gallery and the
Municipal Gallery of Corfu.
-How did your journey with Art started and how did you end up with these materials?
My love for painting begins in a very early age. I remember myself
painting and designing for hours. I am very lucky because my parents
very soon saw my distinguished devotion and love for painting so along
with the primary school they enrolled me at the Art School of Corfu.
Following this first contact with Art, I stuied painting in Athens,
taking part in seminars, exhibitions etc.
The materials I choose to work with vary to the way I want to express myself.
For instance, I choose coal when I work
with Sprint and I’m fascinated by the sharp scripture. Iconography
paints and acrylics are better when I need to paste color and cover
large areas. On the other hand, watercolors and inks work better when
I’m in a more poetic mood.
Which subject do you prefer better to work with?
My personal life and the situation
surrounded is actually my inspiration. The feelings that come up as I am
listening to the contemporary society hold a very important part of my
topics. Also I work a lot with my deepest personal feelings and
experiences, such as loneliness, love or even my internal fears that
stress me the most. So many different topics indeed, but they are
connected through my sincere depiction in my work. Truth is the link
between me and my work.
In your work there are always female figures with no face and the environment is usually abstract.
The female forms are identified mainly
with me. It’s me actually in them.The emotions of my figures come out
usually through their movement or the environment they are surrounded
and not from their facial expressions. It acts like a personal game. The
environment is chosen to be abstract, when tension and strong emotion
is given on the figures. Emotion connects directly with the figure when
environment comes second, although most of the times it’s the
environment that cause the strong feelings on persons.
-You are talking about strong feelings but in your work exists also childish elements.
The childishness of my work comes from
my emotional and often naive perception for this world. It’s a point of
view where suspicion and guile don’t exist…Certainly this look is
“written” on my work.
Lyrics and picture, music and picture, how all these are combined with your Art?
I’ve been always fascinated by the
accurate poetic text, I love reading in general either way, but reading
poems or even lyrics truly inspire me. They give birth to pictures that
I’m called later to express in my work. Sometimes I empower the emotion
on my paintings with words and phrases from the text that inspired
me.It’s like painting with words! I find this as a beautiful adventure, a
nice trip, like a childish game between word and image.Something
similar happens with music. Music works to me like poetic text inspires
me. Listening to music makes me produce images and pictures, and
definitely emotions that I love to “write” on my work. It is amazing how
Arts are combined all together!
I checked her blog and I found “The Soup”. What is this about?- I asked her.
- I illustrate poems and short stories. I have already a narrative illustrated and published by Ianos, it’s called” To Chartino Mouseio Paragenon Gegonoton” [free translation: The paper museum of oddities ].It’s already showed at the American Farm School a few days ago and I have already illustrated a series of poems, which will be exhibited in Corfu at Christmas season in the form of an exhibition and then we will take the exhibition to other cities as well.
” The Soup” is within these series of poems. In general I love painting words”
-What makes you optimistic today?
Definitely what makes me optimistic is
the fact that true values still exist. We still hope because of the
value of friendship, of family, of fellowship, of cooperation, Art etc.
These values can work as “tools” in order to keep our humanity and hope
alive.