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

21st Century Woman

© By Angela Zafiris Collage on paper 24 x 34 cm

The idea for my 21st Century Woman collage came to me in a flash when I started to think about how complicated things have become for women these days. Women have become more expensive, with their clothes and accessories and make-up.  Women are expected  by society to have the latest style and to look their best, always. She is more ‘high maintainance’ now than she has ever been. Sure, in the past women took care of themselves but they were women mostly of the upper class who spent a lot of time and money on their look. But, even those women never spent the time and money on her looks as much as the modern woman has.   It seems that we have all become Queens now, wanting to be pampered and shopping for luxury brand items. However, our current economic crisis has made it harder for most women to have this kind  of life style.

Many females have had to cut down on the many indulgences that their mothers and grandmothers did not have.  They are dying and cutting their own hair, buying cheaper make-up and they are buying fewer clothes-if any this season! Maybe we are not  meant to be Queens and that we should just live a simpler life-save for a lucky few.

 

The Burdens of Atlas/Το Βαρος Του Ατλας

Mixed-media colage on 24 x 32 cm paper
By Angela Zafiris

For my latest collage titled ‘The Burdens of Atlas’ I used a photograph of a statue of Atlas that was in a shop window in a souvenir shop in Athens. I printed it using a laser jet printer and then I painted over the photo since it was a black and white photograph.  I wrote a poem inspired by the myth of Atlas with some inspriring words at the bottom.

We can all relate to the symbolism of of the Titan Atlas in Greek mythology. Atlas was condemned to carry the Uranus (sky) on his shoulders by Zeus when the Titans lost their battle against the Olympians.

When we walk down the street we see people who are not free. They walk with their guilt, anger, fear and other negative emotions on their backs. These emotions and feelings are weighing people down.  They feel heavy like Atlas. We all  must release these burdens from our backs and learn to love themselves so that they can love others.

 ATLAS

By: Angela Zafiris

With the burdens of a thousand years

Come down from the clouds

Walk on solid ground

Look to the sky once and a while

You walk alone with the burdens of a thousand

Years on your shoulders

Disappointments and regrets you must forget

You have lived, you have lived.

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

Webs And Petals-Αραχνες και Πεταλα

By Angela Zafiris

I recently tried to make some of my own potpourri, but something went wrong. I opened the air tight container, after a few days, and I found my rose petals covered in spider webs. A huge spider crawled out. I don’t know how it got in there. Perhaps it was in the container and I had not seen it before I closed it? I thought it looked strange and beautiful so I took  a photo. So glad that my potpourri experiment failed!