Life on Hold IV Painting

Sophia Hadjipapa-Gee developed the series of these panels while struggling with a prevailing issue among artists today: Artists need to engage in all sorts of activities to make ends meet, using up their time outside the studio. The artist, feeling breathless outside the studio, as if her life stops, devised this working process of experimenting with pouring acrylics on to wooden panels as a quick, but satisfying means to keep contact with what keeps her alive, colours, paint, art. So, while her life is on hold – outside the studio- these pieces, resembling sometimes whole universes or planets, facilitate her connection with the feeling of being alive and creative. They act as simple analogies of the artist as Creator, the later making worlds (stars, planets, universes). This line of work connects with the rest of her oeuvre dealing with art as a meditative practice, where the gesture of the artist reflects their inner world and emotional state at a given moment. Other examples of these meditative explorations is her enso series, a kind of mindful drawing based on Japanese calligraphic traditions.