By Greek Products Abroad

http://greekproductsabroad.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/zachou-spyridoula/

Spyridoula Zachou

By Greek Products Abroad / November 23, 2012 / Culture, Photography & Graphic Art. / Leave a comment

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.

Illustration of the poem of carnellio coop (cc) entitled” The OLD MAN AND THE SEA”

-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.

“FEAR.
There is no greater dependence than fear.
Looking around me I see the fear rise and fall along with the people on the street. (…)”
Kostis Gkimosoulis-One night with the red-
Kedros Publications, 1995

-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!

“The Soup” poem of 2005 from Christos Zachos

Poem- The Soup
http://torpila.blogspot.gr/

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.

Chartino Mouseio Paraxenon Gegonoton by Maria Raptis

             http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kGRrSfr_lWQ