View of Acropolis/Θéa της Aκρόπολης

View of the Acropolis from the Agora below

The Acropolis from Below

A model of how the Acropolis looked like in ancient times.

A model of the ancient city

View of the Temple Of Hephaestus within the Agora

“A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome  represents conquest; faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies  the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.” Benjamin Disraeli

 

Temple of Hephaestus/Ο Ναός του Ηφαίστου

After years of living in Athens I paid my first and overdue visit to the ancient Agora.  For the past few weeks I felt drawn to the Temple  of Hephaestus. The temple is located  just below the Acropolis in the ancient Agora (market place). Hephaestus is the God of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, fire and volcanoes.  The temple is the best preserved ancient temple in all of Greece. Upon visiting the temple I was awe-struck by its beauty and energy.  Even though I don’t work with metals I do get crafty, I am good with my hands. What a coincidence that I would feel a pull to visit this place!

The temple with the Agora below

The temple with the Agora below

View of the temple from the front with its Doric columns

The west side of the temple facing Thiseio

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Not a bad-looking temple for a God who was considered the ugliest God of all, and who was crippled by Zeus!I walked for hours that day and the next I could barely walk. I felt crippled just like Hephaestus!

Akovos/Arkadia

These are some black and white photographs from the pictures that I took from my fathers’ village of Akovos in Arcadia, Greece.  He’s so proud! He was happy that I finally went there. It’s not an easy feat getting up there though.. In a earlier post I had published photographs of the Arcadian mountains and of a memorial service for a revolutionary battle that took place in the 19th Century.

Wild Mountain Flowers

Lonely Burnt Tree

Cars Parked on a Cliff

Aghia (Saint) Paraskevi Church

Small VIllage Path

Village Grannie (Giagia Panayoula)

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?

Arcadian Mountains/Battle of Drabala

A few weeks ago I paid a long overdue visit to my fathers’ village called Akovos in Arcadia. The village has a very beautiful and rugged mountainous landscape where many battles were fought in ancient and modern times. I arrived on the day of a memorial service that takes place every year at Aghia Paraskevi church (near Akovos village) which over looks the landscape called ‘Drabala’  A very important battle  took place at the site called the ‘Battle of Drabala’ ( June 5-7 1825) This is where the fierce battle for Greek  independence against the Ottoman Turks unfolded.  To commemorate the death of the soldiers wreaths were layed at the statue of Greek independence war hero Theodoros Kolokotronis.  Then there was a moment of silence  followed by Greek soldiers singing the national anthem.

Memorial For the ‘Battle of Drabala’ (June 5-7 1825) Wreaths at the statue of Greek leader of Independence Theodoros Kolokotronis

Greek Soldiers’ Instruments

Greek Soldiers’ Instruments

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