I am lucky to live on an island full of creative people. One of those people, who’s work I’d seen around before but only recently met, is Dimitra Skandali. Dimitra is a gorgeous, inspirational woman who grew up on Paros and who creates the most fantastic works of art.
I visited her studio last week and she allowed me to take some photos of this wonderful space while we had a coffee and chatted.
Like all artists, her space is full of stuff… stuff in the process of being created, finished stuff, bits of stuff, stuff to make things with, stuff which might come in handy one day, collected stuff, found stuff, wonderful stuff, fun stuff, pretty stuff, old stuff, broken stuff, small stuff, big stuff… just STUFF in all its forms.
I could have spent happy hours exploring her studio!
Her workbench in the middle of the space has tools and materials laid out in preparation for her current projects, laid out neatly, everything within reach…
Crates and bags of dried organic matter, flowers, thread, the ubiquitous stuff she finds which might work in this or an upcoming project.
I just love these hanging baskets dotted with dried flowers. I can’t wait to have my own studio full of things like that… and the space to leave things out and not have to pack one project away to begin another, have visitors or cook…
A weaving project she’s working on laid out over an antique chair. Made from old fishing nets, seaweed and other materials she’s weaved together. Beautiful, haunting and oh so intricately worked.
One day I’ll have a mannequin set up with my tea bag dress in the corner of my studio and pretty stuff everywhere!
Look at all those gorgeous hanging bits and woven art on the walls!
One of the first pieces of Dimitra’s work I’d ever seen was a collection of framed work she’d made using seaweed, like this below.
The little office nook. How cute is that!
I could really relate to her studio – like many artists, myself included! – there are surprises everywhere you look. Part of an old lamp is now the home of a large rusty moth… and it just works!
Dimitra runs the Cycladic Arts Center, a place that has artists in residence from around the world through the year, has shows on a regular basis and hosts events.
I encourage you to visit her website to see her work and explore the Cycladic Arts Centre site.
I came home inspired… then looked at the mess I call a home/studio and despaired. I am nowhere near her league of professionalism.
It’s time to start working again! It’s been too long.
These pics were sent to me by the engineer last week. I’d been too busy to go past there to see for myself till yesterday. But I finally made it and took some of my own pics.
Obviously, he had a drone up the day they poured concrete. Great pics!
The foundation is really high up the end where my studio will be… I sure could have used that extra height to create a loft…
But you can almost see the building now we have an actual ‘floor’.
Here is the concrete slab for the container.
And there is the poor container, still sitting at a drunken angle, waiting to be located in its final position.
The diggy-diggy man actually sifted the pile of stones and separated the dirt… I now have clean(ish) soil for my future garden!
For now, they’ve just pushed rocks up against the slab and in places around the house foundation… I plan to sort it eventually, into rock gardens and garden borders.
I can’t wait to start creating a garden, working on the container and generally making this land home.
Of course, can’t create a garden till I have water and can’t work on the container till I have power (or cordless tools…).
I managed to visit the building site again today and get some updated photos. It was a case of using an anchor and dodging the dust storm cause of the high winds, but I succeeded.
The foundations are finished, and they have almost finished moving the earth and doing some backfilling. Don’t ask me. I’m just the one who pays the bills. Well, along with my brother.
On the way back I stopped to take a photo of something that should never have been allowed to happen, but hey… this is Greece and things ‘happen’…
To explain: there is, on all our documents and contracts, an access road which runs along two sides of our property. This is considered a ‘country/farm road’ or something in Greece. I will call it a country road…
So… this is the start of the country road today:
If you wore full protective gear, rock climbing boots and wielded a very sharp machete, you might be able to get through there. But forget car access, not even a donkey cart can get through with the huge walls the property owners built on either side.
I mean, are you kidding me???
‘Let’s build huge walls that go to the very last millimeter of our land so no one can take ANYTHING from us. After all, we have a road – this part of the country road was opened up… who cares about others down the line? Let them eat cake.’
And beyond those walls (even the buttress of a wall which seems rather unnecessary unless its sole purpose is to close off access, which is most likely is), they’ve tossed rocks and rubble on the path so that nothing can get through. Ever.
I know. I tried walking it once. At great personal risk.
What used to be a country road, accessed by foot and donkey in my grandfather’s youth, the only road to get to the beach back then, is now rendered useless. So, we no longer have public road access to our property.
Till now we’re driving in through a neighbouring block, temporary access… for how long, who knows, I don’t know. I’ve applied to the municipality to open up/clear part of the road further down where someone has built a house and has cleared a section to his place. We need to go from there till our property, giving access to another 3 properties… not just us.
When I asked at the municipality about opening the old country road from the beginning and informed them that walls had been built, a very friendly woman informed that ‘Oh, they’ve built walls? We cant/wont open the road.’…
HUH? Is it a recognised road HISTORICALLY or is it not???
Yet, apparently, when my closest neighbour on that side asked about opening a road a long time ago (she is currently doing what we’re doing and using temporary access through her brother’s land) she was told she already had the country road therefore did not need another way in…
Sigh.
It’s Greece after all. What can I say? If you know the right people, are willing to cut corners and do a little creative fudging, you can do almost anything you want. Sure, things are changing, the government is trying to crack down on everything, especially every single cent you might make, but the cheating and slight of hand continues…
So… this is what’s been keeping me busy for the last month, and more flat-out the last 4 days.
My friend Athina and I decided that rather than just combine our skills, talents, experience and energy to do smaller creative workshops as we’ve done in the past, we would do a HUGE event/workshop combination to end all event/workshop combinations!
Ok, so, the idea began as a desire to meet other creatives on Paros, to inspire and share our skills and to raise funds for charity.
Rather than set up a lot of individual workshops we decided to combine a show/fair and mini workshops into 2 days over a weekend. All for FREE.
We invited creatives from different genres to join us and set up in a beautiful space owned by the municipality. The plan was simple – 6-7pm meet and greet the artists and check out their work. 7-9pm FREE mini workshops. Buy/donate money to charity.
We were lucky enough to obtain support from many small businesses on the island in order to arrange everything and the weekend was a huge success. Everyone had fun, people learned new things and we even raised money for our chosen charities.
Athina has been doing work with people with disabilities her whole life so her chosen charity was the Cycladic association for the blind, AROGI.
I chose to support PAWS, the Paros Animal Welfare Society, cause, you know… me and animals!
We had people who did collage, decoupage, soaps and lotions, jewelry, weaving, watercolour, mixed media, macrame, rock painting, fimo sculpture, mandalas and cookie decorating.
Here are some photos of the event!
We also had a demonstration of tap dancing and tango from people who teach on the island.
As always, Vincent was there to spread the joy…
The president of AROGI gave a short talk and shared what their association does for people with sight issues on the islands and brought in some items to give people a taste of what its like to not be able to see.
And of course we had information about PAWS and donation tins.
All in all, it was a fun weekend and a great success. We will be organising more stuff in the future, but of course, like life in any tourist destination… as summer approaches everyone becomes too busy to do anything other than work. So autumn is when we plan to start up again!
Till then I need to find a way to advertise and book my own sculpture and art workshops for visitors on the island – now that Air BnB is no longer supporting new ‘adventures’…
I will put out flyers in hotels and such, but that means people can only book on short notice (as they aren’t often here for long) and I’m often flat out grooming in summer. I need to have advance notice to organise workshops.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the word out and book small private workshops online, please let me know.
As I already shared, we went to Naxos for the carnival. It was great, totally different to anything I’ve ever done before. A real adventure, so much fun! Of course, little Vincent had to sit out the actual Lampathofori (Parade of Torches) as it was too loud and too crowded. He stayed in the air bnb while Zefi and I joined the crowd as they chanted to the beat of the drums.
On the balcony, waiting for the Parade of Torches. A long wait.
We were lucky (or unlucky) in our choice of air bnbs ’cause we were right over the main square where everything happened on Saturday night. It was ideal for watching thing unfold from our own balcony, but not ideal for the early morning wake up on Sunday as they sound tested the equipment for the float parade later that day.
Dionysia was a Panhellenic festival in honor of Dionysus. One of the most important centers of these festivals was Naxos. The celebration included wine drinking, cheerfulness, unbridled enthusiasm, cymbals, drums, troupes, processions, dithyrambs (choral chants) and phallophoria.
Here is my own video of the night:
The lambathofori parade on Naxos.
The next day, we went to a couple of villages where we saw the Koudounati.
Men strapped with bells and carrying Dionysian phallic symbols known locally as somba, stir up a racket while parading through the village alleys in a procession held to welcome the spring season and exorcise evil spirits.
Turns out, this would have been a better day to leave little Vinnie at home. It was way louder and way more crowded. Poor little man cowered in his bag. Especially in Apeiranthos, the town most famous for the Koudounati where if you fell you’d never hit the ground.
However, we managed to catch them in another town as well, where this lovely man was happy to take a photo with us.
Here is my short video of the event:
Koudounati, bell strapped men, at the Naxos Carnival.
Now, if you’re wondering at the lack of actual MEN in those parades, let me take some time to rant a little about the organizational skills of the Greeks and their total inability to stick to any kind of schedule. Ever.
The Naxos municipality puts out a timetable of events around the island, and like most gullible people who have lived in countries where a schedule is a schedule, we made our plans. I’m not saying we didn’t expect some delays… its normal to have some delays… especially in Greece where the national tag line is ‘siga siga’ (literally ‘slowly slowly’ or ‘it’ll get done eventually‘).
However, let me warn everyone who will visit Greece – times/schedules etc are not a program based on any kind of reality but of fantasy. As Captain Barbarossa said in Pirates of the Carribean, its more like ‘guidelines’….
Seriously. The program said that the Lambadifori would start at 6pm at the square were people would get dressed to start the parade. I didn’t expect to see them till about 8pm, cause it needs to be dark, right? They didn’t show till almost midnight. sigh. Good thing we didn’t turn up to get painted and dressed at 6pm or we’d have been dead on our feet before the parade began!
And it was the same with the Koudounati. We got to Apeiranthos around 2.30pm, they were meant to gather at 2pm. We left there at 5pm when someone told us that the men still hadn’t gathered, it would be at least another hour before they made their entrance. Only the young boys were happy to run around town with the bells and clubs – so, no wild mustachioed men for us… We weren’t going to waste more time being squished while we waited.
We also hoped to see the Kordelati but missed them due to the lateness of everything. We ran into these two Foustanelatoi just as they finished their dancing…
On Clean Monday the custom of ribbons and foustanelata (foustanelades) is observed, which, like the other customs of the Carnival, is a memory of the ancient Dionysian festivals and coincides with the ancient Anthestiria.
According to scholars of folk tradition, kordelatoi and foustanelatoi (foustanelades), during the Venetian occupation, were a way for the Orthodox to communicate with each other, while it is said that during the revolution of ’21, they sewed triangular handkerchiefs they had on their chest and hid gunpowder there to transport it to the Peloponnese and elsewhere.
The custom is that the young people of the village, wearing colored ribbons or foustanelles respectively, form groups, the bairakia, led by the bairachtar, that is, the one who holds the bairaki of the group, which is a thick reed with a colored scarf at the end, and to honor with their visit the women of the neighboring villages, dancing with them in the central square accompanied by violins and lutes. In turn, the women of each village treat the men with food, sweets and wine to please them.
In the past, this custom was also a way for young people from different villages to get to know each other and so many weddings occurred. Today the inhabitants of the island zealously maintain the custom and pass it on from generation to generation.
Amongst all the things happening around us, we visited a few villages, had some great meals at tavernas, caught up with family and friends and made some new ones.
Vincent made a new friend.
Walking up to the Portara on Sunday morning, Vincent made a new friend. Here she is, peering at us over the wild flowers.
The Portara
Naxos’ Temple of Apollo – Portara, a huge marble gate and the single remaining part of an unfinished temple of Apollo of 530 BC, is the island’s emblem and main landmark.
Standing on the islet of Palatia, at the entrance to Naxos harbor, it comprises four marble parts weighing about 20 tons each.
The view back to town from the Portara.
Here are some pics I took along the way.
We visited Lionas, a tiny place you wouldn’t even call a village, on the furthest end of Naxos. There was a cute little taverna there and a small beach with the most beautiful black sand, black stones and the best white rocks I’ve ever seen.
This is how Vincent felt after all our travels…
Pretty much how I felt too!
Back home now and trying to catch up on all the things I have on my to-do list. Well, some of them at least!
I have no idea what to call this… It’s a helping table – a side table for grooming, a tool table. Whatever it is, it’s a handy little benchlike structure I made to sit next to my grooming table to hold my tools handy and safe while I groom.
I had a general idea of what I wanted in my head and pile of scrap wood on the patio here at home. So, without any real plan, I just began cutting random bits of wood and screwing them together.
I don’t recommend this way of working, but it’s how I roll… flying by the seat of my pants!
You can see various bits of pine, odd corner bits of some kind of wood, thicker bits, thinner bits, wider bits, narrower bits. All different.
Eh. They all tie in when painted… sort of. After all, it’s not a beauty contest.
One thing I knew for sure when ‘thinking about designing’ this little table, was that I needed a safe place for my shears (scissors to non-groomers!) so they wouldn’t fall off the table. Actually, that’s also why there are sides on the top, to stop anything at all from falling off. But shears are especially delicate… drop those and they’re useless till you get them fixed.
So, besides the corner side bits of odd wood I found on the rubbish pile, I drilled holes into the top to put the shears in.
Here it is finished. Or 99.9% finished. I still need to decide how I’ll orient it when I’m working, then add some hooks to it for hanging clippers, Dremel or anything else that I might need to get out of the way of scrabbling little feet.
The lower shelf will hold my dryer and maybe even my extension cord to keep them off the ground. The bad thing about grooming outdoors in this place is that if one of the neighbours further up decides it’s a good time to hose down their yard, my yard is second last and I quickly find myself ankle deep in water.
Generally speaking, it’s not recommended you stand in water while performing activities requiring electricity.
The lower shelf is made from a skinny pallet I picked up along the side of the road and pulled apart with only minor damage to myself. I cut, sanded and varnished the pieces before pre-drilling them in order to prevent splintering when screwing them to the side pieces. It was a frustrating endeavour, but I got it done with minimal swearing.
So now its ready.
I’m ready to use it.
Unlike the dog bath while still awaits the plumber to plumb it in… He said this week.
I admit, I’ve been lazy. Very lazy. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything at all. I’ve done a few things…
Including this very large painting of a shell.
It’s a commission for an air bnb studio apartment, the theme was something island-ey and the main colour had to be grey.
It took a while to do, first I had to find something I liked as a theme, then I worked on layers to achieve the colours and texture I was after.
I think I achieved it.
For now I’ve hung it over my bed in my bedroom as its the only free wall in my place. The new owner will pick it up in a month or so, till then I’m the one enjoying it.
Here are a couple of close ups that show the texture I was aiming for. It’s not nearly as textured as the cat on a chair I did last year because I didn’t cover the canvas with magazine pages first.
I’m pretty pleased with it. I’ve rarely worked on something this size – 120cm x 90cm. But I like it, it was fun. It was done on a recycled canvas so now I’m looking for more large canvases to recycle!
So, you may ask, what other things have kept me busy? Well… Vincent keeps me on my toes for one thing. He’s either sleeping, chewing on things he finds in my toolbox, selecting a toy from his toybox and playing with it, asking for cuddles, wanting to go out and socialize and have coffee with friends… what did I do with myself all those months without a poodle?
Plus I am working through a list of things to get done both online and in real life.
I’m halfway through making a small table to hold my grooming tools while I work, using all sorts of odd and end bits of timber I have lying around.
My dog bath arrived and has been set up. Now I await the plumber.
I’m waiting for the wind to die down so the guys can come out and do more concreting on our building – a slab for the container to sit on, columns and a structure which will house the electricity meters.
Yes. You read that right!
I actually heard from the electric company and it took me two visits to see the guy I needed to see, who just wanted to show me the map he’d made of where they will bring in the power.
I said “That’s fine”.
He said “Get your construction crew to build a spot for the meters.”
I said “Sure” and it was done. Only took getting up at 6.30am two days…
I also got a call from the water authority!
Wonders will never cease.
This was trickier.
I was told that the closest route to get water into our property was through one of the 3 neighbouring houses above our land. So I have to find out who they are and knock on their doors to see if any one of them will give the water company permission to put pipes through their land…
This is Greece.
How likely is it?
I don’t know.
As for the road access… I’m still on that, but I’m told I will most likely need a solicitor to locate the owners of the other properties who would benefit from opening that section of road. No way I can find the owners on my own… and the neighbour who said she will fight the issue with me can’t find her contracts… which would mean I’m requesting a road on my own.
How likely do you think the council is to do this if me and my brother are the only ones asking?
You do know that you can’t create without making a mess, right? So why bother cleaning if you’re going to just make another mess?Â
At least that’s my philosophy in life.
My house is my art studio, a place to pile stuff, where I groom dogs, where I make stuff or paint stuff and, sometimes, where I actually make art…
This little 50m2 apartment has to fit all that in it.
As a result, I can’t see my kitchen table top for months at a time. When I want to cook I have to clear crafts, paint and occasionally tools off the kitchen bench and stove top.
In summer, since I don’t really have time to do much other than groom, I usually keep the house tidier. Soon as I get busier with grooming, I pack away all the paint tubes, varnish spray cans, the sewing machine, the unfinished works of art, and clean the house. Once almost everything but the daily living stuff is put away, its easy to clean.
I just run a broom or a vacuum cleaner over the floor, mop it, and voila. Its pretty much done.
But its too early in the year for that, so for now I only sweep or mop when it gets embarrassingly bad, or I can no longer quieten the voice my mother implanted in my head as a child which hassles me to do housework.
For the last couple of days I’ve been doing online stuff as well as building a side table for grooming. I’m using all scrap wood I’ve collected over the months, making something not so pretty but functional. It’s where I’ll put my scissors, clippers, blades, and anything I might need to reach for while grooming a dog. When its finished it will have a couple of handy hooks, get painted a pretty colour and have a cover to protect it from the weather.
Till now I’ve been using a metal trolley I found at the rubbish bins a couple of years ago. It’s missing the top but the two lower shelves are intact. I think that while I have power tools out, I’ll make a top shelf for it. So far, I’ve been spreading a clean towel over the existing middle shelf and laying my tools on that. However, now I bought a bath for the dogs, I will move that to the wet area to hold shampoos and other bath accessories. Hence the need for the patched together little bench/side table.
When it’s finished, I will share a post about it, but trust me… I am no carpenter, so I don’t bother sharing instructions or how to videos. You do not want to do things the way I do them! I just screw this to that, measure then measure again another 2-3 times, and still get it wrong sometimes, cut this or that to add as I progress along a path that is totally unplanned and for sure completely the wrong way to do things.
It works for me. I’m not fussy. I like using recycled materials and making things from scraps. I also don’t care if something looks wonky. It has character!
junk4joy 