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Street stories: Life like a painting

01 May 2010 / 11:05:07  GRReporter
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A thing that particularly impressed me was the fact that when I showed some of my pictures in Latvia I was told that the colors are very dark. It really surprised me at first. Then I realized why my paintings are of such colors. Because of the light in Greece. Here, with this bright sun, which is everywhere you can comfortably use dark colors. While the north needs colors. In most of the year the weather is gray. In their everyday life there, people need more sunny colors. Here people wear much darker colors.

Practically when you create you do not think about anything else. I am so much focused on the process of searching. Every time I feel like my mind is traveling somewhere, that it is not here. I see many things in my imagination. In my mobile phone I keep endless number of pictures of things I saw and inspired me. I don’t use all of them in my works, but I shoot them.
 

And if I had stayed in Latvia maybe I would not have done what I did here. I could not tell you how my life would look like or my work if I had stayed there. Maybe even I would not have done anything of what I've done so far here. Who knows. I might have not had the chance to paint as I do now. I think we can not say what would be our fate if we were not in this but in another country. If we could know such things probably we would not be doing also what we do now. Maybe we would have been trying to keep ourselves through other choices. This nobody knows. But Greece is certainly a country where your heart is opening...

In my experience the difference between the north and the south is great. In the north things are standard and are known. Having said that we will meet at 20.00 o’clock, this means that we will meet exactly at 20.00 o’clock. Certainly we will not be late. In the south things are calmer. People are more carefree. They do not worry about such petty things. In the north we are more formal in many aspects. Over time I see that here it is better. There is stress also here, but it is different from the stress of the north.

Not long ago a friend of ours from American once asked us: “Are we going to the Acropolis tomorrow?” I answered to him: “We'll see.” And this is a response that only one Greek can give. The American thought and asked: “What does this mean we'll see? Yes or no?” It was like this for two days. On the third he said: “People tell me yes or no.” We explained to him that in Greece things are unforeseeable. Today, they close off the center, tomorrow there will be a marathon, and on the third day there will be something else. Constantly something is happening. It is for a fact that life here is never boring. One is not like a fixed machine every day knowing exactly what awaits him. That he would wake up, go to work, and will do this or that.

Today I feel comfortable here. The climate plays an important role. Because as you wake up in the morning and it is cold and frost everywhere what exactly are you supposed to think? You are closing up in yourself. And this is reflected not only on you but on your relationships with people. As you wake up in Greece, however and you see the sun shining why shouldn’t you be in a good mood? How much easier it is for people here to just start a conversation and how much warmer they are.

I have so many dreams. But everything has its time. And what does not work out, it is for good. Maybe later, in a more appropriate time it will happen.

Nowadays I miss the most my family and my brothers who are in Latvia. Otherwise, here I am accustomed to everything. With the fact that, the matters related to the documents are not quite right, with the fact that people are late... I think that when people decide to live in a country they have no other choice but to adapt to the system.

Generally to all the Greeks I would wish to be well. Times are hard, and major changes are happening. Clearly, when one has problems in their daily lives they do not think about art and will not go to an exhibition. I hope that it will all be over soon. I wish to the people here to find a way to deal with the situation and things to finally settle down.

Tags: Catherine Lemodeti roots artist Athens street stories
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