Kalimera!
I’m a designer and artist living in Greece in the southern, sea-kissed suburbs of Athens. Over the years my creative curiosity has guided me into the endless and fascinating worlds of interior design, surface patterns, art, ceramics, embroidery and photography; in a word, the visual and tactile arts. The way interiors can be transformed when given the right treatment fascinates me but I also love it (and prefer it) when interiors reflect their owners’ personalities and personal stories. I work from my home studio and am open to licensing of my patterns and designs as well as collaborations on your unique project. But first, let’s take a step back in time…
Where it began
I was born in London to my Greek mum and Greek/Russian dad but moved to Greece when I was four. Returning to the UK for my higher education, my creative path began at the London School of Fashion where I studied industrial fashion design and manufacture followed by studies in interior design while working full time on luxury cruise ships! My fascination and love of bold, bright patterns and spaces soon led me down the path of designing my own surface patterns which I applied to hand knotted rugs, hand made cement tiles, textiles, wood and more!
While practicing interior design as a freelancer, teaching english as a foreign language and translating books I also attended local painting classes and ceramics workshops. Then in 2014 I was asked to participate in a group art exhibition in Athens exhibiting my tactile artworks on wood, which I create using a technique that has become pretty much my signature trademark.
About my artwork
In my artwork I like to paint what brings me joy. My art is very much informed by my education and practice in interior design; to me a room full of colour is a room full of joy! Colour harmony and balance play an integral role in my creative joy and expression. Bold colors and whimsical design elements feature a lot in my art.
I am at my best when I allow myself to create intuitively, allowing my muse to flow through me. Moments like that are heaven. But, like many, I am always working to overcome my inner critic.
A great part of my artwork is borne from a fascination with the natural world, in particular the underwater world, my own heritage and a lifetime of travel and exposure to diverse cultures -as mentioned earlier, I worked on cruise ships for 8 years until I had my daughter. My design work is also defined by a lavish and expressive use of elements, abstract shapes, symbols, motifs and repeat patterns inspired by elements of local (Greek) as well as international folk art.
Always curious and exploring other media and techniques
Apart from the tactile art I create on wood I also enjoy exploring other media and materials and, more recently, I have taken a deep dive into the world of textile arts applying my designs and ideas to this rich medium encompassing a vast range of techniques developing and enriching my skills and range of work.
In telling you a little about me I could not omit my love of photography and which has now become a wonderful tool that helps me observe our colourful world in greater detail and which I use to reference ideas and subjects for my art.
I am inspired by a lifetime of travel and exposure to diverse cultures and I am always striving to follow my own style, beat & rhythm. My application of colour has always been primarily intuitive. Colour feeds my senses. It needs to be harmonious and balanced, sometimes bold and loud, at other times soft and quiet. I ‘listen’ to it and have a conversation with it. In a sense I am a conduit for whatever I am creating wants to be and say.
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