HELLO PAPOU AND A WARM WELCOME TO THE 4BYSIX FAMILY. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK TO US ABOUT YOUR ART PRACTICE AND THE WORK YOU HAVE MADE TO SUPPORT OUR VEHICLES FOR CHANGE INITIATIVE. 

I don’t approach anything I do to achieve something on purpose, I’m always just creating from that urge/idea I get and follow it through until the release happens. 

TO BEGIN, FOR THOSE DISCOVERING YOUR ART PRACTICE FOR THE FIRST TIME, HOW WOULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND THE WORLD YOU'RE CREATING THROUGH YOUR PAINTINGS?

Through my paintings I’ve been in conversation with myself about who and what I am to me. Growing up with a Greek father was all I ever knew. But there’s this other part of me that wasn’t passed down. My mom who passed away last year was cherokee Indian. Since birth she gave my brother and I up to be raised by our dad. My entire life I wanted to know her. Through my paintings I started to explore this side to me that was never taught but felt deeply. Like a hum in my bones. It’s something I’m still actively exploring through my work. It used to make me uncomfortable but now I embrace the unknown of it. I’ve learned alot about myself in the process all while healing my inner child. 

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR EARLIER WORKS, WHAT HAVE YOU NOTICED HAS CHANGED MOST IN YOUR VISUAL LANGUAGE, AND WHAT HAS REMAINED CONSTANT THROUGHOUT YOUR PRACTICE?

My earlier works are very close to my heart because they were completely new and intuitive. I had no idea what I was doing. Like trying to scratch and itch you can’t exactly place while you’re reaching for it on ya back. But now I think I paint more free. It’s taken me years to be less defined in the right ways. But my subject is and has always been me. It’s me in grief or me in joy. It’s either childhood memories that I’m reworking on the canvas or it’s adulthood moments I’m living hear and now. I’m forever in conversation with myself. I paint as a way to cope with being alive. 

AS YOU DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF PAINTING AS AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE, CAN YOU TELL US HOW YOU FOUND MAKING THESE PIECES ON THE REPURPOSED LORRY TARPAULIN AS AN UNCONVENTIONAL CANVAS?

I love to paint on unconventional things. Painting on the tarp as canvas felt natural to me. 

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE WORKS YOU HAVE CREATED ON THE REPURPOSED LORRY TARPAULIN? WAS THERE A SPECIFIC REFERENCE OR THEME WHICH INSPIRED THE DIRECTION OF THE WORK?

I have a fixation on the sensation you get while being comfortable submerged under water in a pool. I’m constantly back at that space in my works. It’s like the feeling you get licking an icecream beachside with seagulls in the background. I love the way the ice creams textured like the ocean like the paint. I painted these works for 4x6 from that space. It sorta tastes like nostalgia. 

NATURE IS A CONSTANT PRESENCE IN YOUR PAINTINGS AND A SOURCE OF GRATITUDE IN YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS. AS ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES BECOME AN INCREASINGLY URGENT TOPIC, HAS THE WAY IN WHICH YOU REPRESENT THE NATURAL WORD CHANGED?

My relationship to the natural world is unique to me In that I don’t see myself as superior or more important than the animals or the trees. We’re all just existing along side each other. Sometimes I look around in all of our human conditions and seriousness’s and I think oh shit am I just existing in that palm trees reality. I’d like to be more like the natural world. We are as humans always criticizing ourselves and trying to be good. But nature just is. It feels so peaceful to just be. When I paint I find myself just being. It’s a flow I can only exist in while in front of the canvas.

LASTLY, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ANY UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS OR CREATIVE PROJECTS THAT FEEL ESPECIALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOU RIGHT NOW, AND WHAT CAN YOU SHARE ABOUT THEM?

Right now I’m working on some projects I can’t share much on but I did just have my first museum acquisition and I’ve got two small shows happening internationally. One in Vancouver and one in Amsterdam. Id really like to get shows in Paris, NYC and LA. Calling it in.