Breaking the Barriers V Painting

Fine art is the discipline of breaking rules. M.B. Dallocchio I had always loved to draw since I was a very young child, but I first realized that I had a talent in painting at the age of 7. One day, our school art teacher took us to a farmers’ market and asked us to draw any scene we liked. I still remember the old man with the grey hair and the big mustache who was dressed in his traditional Cypriot clothes while selling fruits and vegetables. He looked old and very tired from his life’s hardship, yet still he had a peaceful smile and a gentle kindness on his face. This had a strong appeal to me and so I decided to make a sketch of him. Soon enough a small crowd of people was standing around me, observing the progress of my work with interest. Perhaps this was a trigger and a message to my young self that what I loved to do as hobby could be ‘more’ in my life, and perhaps likewise in the lives of others. New horizons were opened to me on that day. There were meanings, feelings and issues of life that I could convey and share with people around me. From that day on, ‘Art’ became a way of life for me. Since my young age and while growing up, I have been creating Art with themes inspired from everyday life and nature. Still until present, various thoughts in my head become Art on canvas and through other means, interpreted in my own way. I am drawn in observing random people, the ordinary everyday passengers of life and their momentary casual behavior while they are not aware of being observed. The feelings sometimes radiate happiness and sometimes sadness. Or loneliness and the human need to escape in search for honesty, companionship, security, meaning and hope in a world of many but alienated in essence people. Usually my Art portrays short stories with simple life messages. Sometimes I imprint scenes with humorous style, and other times I use various ‘objects’ as ‘symbols’. For example, the umbrella that appears in some of my work represents the human need for hiding, or the need to protect oneself. In some of my paintings I capture ‘moments of life’, moments which may be wasted chances in someone’s life due to people’s lack of time, or due to the insecurity and indifference that surround the current modern lifestyle. The energy, the technique and the colors which characterize my work, form a first impression of happiness or sadness and sometimes of mystery, to the viewer.