My Collages

Charybdis and Precious Time/Χάρυβδις και Ο Πολύτιμος Χρόνος
Charybdis and Precious Time

Paper collage on 40 x 40 cm canvas
By Angela Zafiris

When I began making my artwork I had no idea what the theme would be i just worked from intuition placing images together on the canvas. When I was done, I decided that I was going to call it ‘Precious Time’ since I used jewels and faces of watches. That same day I was on the internet when I cam across an article n about mythological creatures. One creature that caught my attention was that of Charybdis.  In Greek mythology Charybdis was the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia . She was once a beautiful naiad who was turned into a sea monster by Circe, a witch, who was extremely jealous of the maiden. Charybdis is the personification of a whirl pool in the ocean that sinks Greek ships. She is referenced in Homers’ ‘The Odyssey’ where Odysseas is faced with Scylla (another monster) and Charybdis in a narrow strait and where Scylla took the lives of some of his crew men.

Was it mere coincidence? Fate? Whatever it was I just thought it was so odd how I came across this mythology that I wasn’t very familiar with on the day that I was to name and publish my artwork on my site.  Artwork that might  have been inspired by the mythology but was not-or maybe it was… perhaps subconsciously?

Superwoman
Superwoman

Mixed-media collage on 24 x 32 cm canvas panel by Angela Zafiris

Women have always worn many ‘hats’.  There are so many roles that women have had  to play for thousands of years. It is no wonder that women are known to be better ‘multi-taskers’ than men. Not all women want the same things in life. Not all women want careers and not all women want to be wives and/or mothers. Fortunately, women have more choices than they have ever had, but this of course varies from country to country and from family to family. But,  I know, for example, that in Greece women are not forced into marriage like they were so long ago. And they have a greater voice than they ever did.  Lets not forgot that in Ancient Greece women were not allowed to leave the house alone or have any say about politics and other matters.  I feel that many women today forget the struggles that women in the past had to endure and still do around the world.  It’s important to study the past and to think about how some things have changed and improved and how somethings have not. There are women who are overwhelmed by the choices we have today and who yearn for the time when we had none. I would suggest that those women educate themselves a little more and look back at the conditions that women were living in that prompted them to rise up and to demand equality and respect.

My Movie Mind/Το Κινηματογραφικο Μου Μυαλο

Mixed-media collage painting
By Angela Zafiris

My mind is a movie mind and aside from making art and taking photographs I also like to write screenplays .  This side of my creativity is what inspired me to make this collage. I am a very visual person I can see things in my mind that I have never seen before. I see the people, and the places in my mind. I hear the dialogue between the characters; which at times is  funny and other times is sad.  I don’t need the television or a movie theatre to entertain me. It’s all in my mind 🙂

The background is composed of torn images from magazines. I painted the background with orange and blue acrylics. I then added pieces of paper from magazines added a layer of Gesso. After it dried I  painted over the papers with turquoise  acrylic paint and set it to dry. I made an outline of a human profile and I painted it yellow. Then I made a movie projector and painted it yellow as well.

Egocentric/Ο Εγωκεντρικός

Collage on paper by Angela Zafiris

I was inspired to make this collage after thinking about the ego. The ‘ego’, from the Greek word ‘Εγω’ ‘I,’ can propel us to do great things in our lives. We can reach great heights, higher stations in life. But, too much egotism, and an overuse of the word ‘I’ can bring about a great downfall. There should be a balance and we must think of the group. We have always been part of a group. We are tribal people and forever will be, even though many modern people have taken solitary paths.  I believe that we are at our most happiest when what we do benefits the group, because that’s what we have always been doing on this earth. Every one of our actions was for the benefit of the group.

 “The problem is that we have allowed our egos, the part of us which believes that we are separate from God and separate from each other, to dominate our lives.”

~ Wayne Dyer

Breaking Free/Ελευθερια

Torn Paper collage by Angela Zafiris

For a very long time I would see, in my mind,  a woman being released from her isolation.  I saw her walls breaking down. She walked alone with the wind behind her pushing her toward the blue sky. The sun is coming out of the clouds and is ready to greet her. She doesn’t know what fate has in store for her but has an undying hope. Green symbolizes hope this is why she wears a green dress instead of black which symbolizes mourning.  This woman mourns no more…

In this collage I used bits of torn blue paper from magazines for the sky. Torn bits of brown paper for the bricks and green for the females’ dress. The papers were glued on 34 x22 cm cardboard paper.

Love?/Ερωτας;

The first photograph is my collage at its first stage before being completely altered.  After all the images got glued down on cardboard paper.  I let it dry for a few hours.  I then added a  white wash to blend everything together.  After the wash dried I painted over it with  phthalocyanine blue. It was too dark, so I used burnt sienna mixed with a bit of  titanium white acrylic to tone down the dark blue.  It looked a lot better.  Then I added the images  and the text. I thought that the text stood out too much so I glued tissue paper over the text.  A crimson acrylic was then applied with a key card, to make a border which is not seen in photo.  The basic key to making a collage is layering and more layering and use just a couple of colours.

Love? (incomplete)

Collage on paper by Angela Zafiris

Don’t Follow The Status Quo/Μην Ακουλουθειτε Το Καθεστώς
Don't follow..

Collage by Angela Zafiris

My latest collage painting is glued on a 40×30 cm canvas.  I made the background using  pieces of text from a Greek book (not an interesting one) .  The coloured pieces that I used to make the faces are from various magazines. I wanted the larger words, the phrase, to blend into the background better, so I transferred the text using gel medium.

“One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion”. –Voltaire

Μy Published Artwork/Δημοσιεύθηκε Το Έργo Τέχνης Μου

A few weeks ago I came into contact with the editor of  the Dutch magazine ‘Ophef’.  He had stumbled across my blog and he saw my collages. He really liked my ‘Crisis Collage’; this is a collage that I made when the crisis in Greece began. When I was making my collage I did not expect someone from another country to see it let alone publish it in their magazine!

I received the magazine today and I am thrilled that my collage is on the cover of the magazine.  Having a blog has helped me come into contact with so many people from around the world.

Thank you so much to the editor of  ‘Ophef” magazine  Mr. Bart Vijfvinkel for expressing an interest in my art work and publishing my collage .

Fear of Commitment/O Φόβος Της Δέσμευσης

Collage painting on watercolour paper 12 x 9 in.
By Angela Zafiris

For my collage painting  I used pieces of text from a Greek book, acrylics, and pastels. I used  a vintage photograph of a woman from a 1920’s pulp fiction magazine called ‘Argosy’. I photocopied the photo and I painted the photo with acrylics. The wedding cake was made with white scrap pieces of paper.