Inspiration

Free Woman

By Angela Zafiris
Collage on paper 24 x32 cm

Happy New Year! Today is the Chinese new year and I believe-like the Chinese that the New Year starts at the end of  January and not at the beginning. This gives me more time to work on my resolutions for this year ;)))

The idea for my new collage titled ‘Free Woman’ came to me last week. It’s my first completed collage of the year. I used white tissue paper for the background and added some colour.  The bird coming out of the woman represents the free bird hidden within all of us waiting to be set free. I like to use text in my collages. I like to write poetry, so I put some text with poetry that I wrote and pasted it onto the bird.

“Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they just need to run free til they find someone just as wild to run with them.”

Sex and the City quotes

Climbing Life

By Angela Zafiris

I decided to get a little crafty with my latest collage mixed-media painting on canvas. I used an old photo copy of an old movie star that I found in  a folder. I cut out some words that I had typed on the computer. I used acrylics and pastels and I transferred some words and designs on to the canvas with a gel matte medium.  There are negative words on the bottom of the mountain because the bottom is our lower consciousness. In life, we have to rise above or climb over these feelings to get to a higher state of consciousness.  The higher state is love, peace and clarity.

The cloud above her head has the following quote:

“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.” -Ralph W Sockman

Rainy Days

Mixed-media collage painting 31 x 23 cm on paper
By Angela Zafiris

I’ve hoped for rain during this blistering heat in Athens, but no such relief.  Since I can’t stand it when the temperature exceeds 30° C.  So I decided to stay in my air-conditioned home and make myself  a mixed-media collage painting.

For this collage painting I used a photocopied  picture from a magazine of an old Broadway musical poster. The image of the female and the umbrella are from magazines as well, but not photocopied. I used dark acrylics blue and purple and text in the background. Then I  used a paper towel to absorb the excess paint.

Inspiring Women-Γυναικες Που Μας Εμπνεουν

Labelled as the ‘weaker’ sex yet in every women lies an enormous strength. what women endure in their lives around the world is tragic and appalling even in so-called ‘civilised’ societies women are treated differently than men.  There is not country that is safe for women. There is always danger and few venture out alone at night in any city. We are weaker because we lack the physical strenght but  is it because we are also more sensitive and nurturing than men? Is that being weak? If we all got in touch with feminine power instead of masculine what a different more loving and compassionate world it would be.

This is why I love to hear stories about strong women who try to make a difference and who inspire other.  A friend of mine wrote an article about a woman named Kim MacGregor who’s daughter was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She and her daughter both are spokes people for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation her 12 year old daughter raises money for the foundation by selling her art work.

The video is part of a movement launced by Kim MacGregor. Kim lost her 31 year old friend Erika to colon cancer two years ago. The movement is called ‘I believe she’s amazing’ to honour her friend Erika who had a great impact on her life. For more information about Kim please click on the link below to read the article.

http://www.goodnewstoronto.ca/2011/05/may-2011-kim-macgregor-i-believe-she%E2%80%99s-amazing-because%E2%80%A6/

Follow Your Dreams/Ακολουθησε Τα Ονειρα Σας

signstext

Mixed-media assemblage By Angela Zafiris

Oh the Signs!   They are everywhere if we only just stop to read them and follow them.  Sometimes we are given signs through a song on the radio, a vivid dream, the television or something that someone says to you.  We are always given messages that guide us to where we should be heading.

I decided to make an inspirational collage-painting to remind me everyday who I really am. Nobody knows you better than yourself but sometimes we get lost and we lose ourselves and we don’t know who we are anymore. But, the signs and our intuition gives us hints to what we can be if only we just believe. 🙂

Blind Photography

In this life we are constantly being judged and told by our peers or complete strangers what we can’t or shouldn’t do. We are given limitations and obstacles towards are goals. We become negative and fear that we are not good enough. Sometimes we inflict the negativity and fear on ourselves. This happens when we have very little confidence in ourselves and when we undermine our abilities.  Everyone has the ability to do something great and extraordinary, but only if we let go of negativity and do things a bit different from the majority.

I would recommend for anyone who doubts themselves and their abilities to watch the above video. It is truly inspirational and features a photographer named Pete Eckert. He is blind-yes blind!  Being blind does not mean that a person cannot be visual. He uses his heightened sense of sound to help him with his photography.

“Sound gives an image, just like light gives an image’ he says in the video.  He won the Artists Wanted Exposure 2008 competition and his work has been shown in exhibitions.  He was featured in Time Magazine and he is in a documentary on the American channel HBO.

‘Never underestimate the potential and power of the human spirit’- Anonymous