In March 2020, during the first lockdown, I discovered cyanoprinting. It was a difficult period for me, compounded by many losses.
In October of that year, I spent three weeks in the General State Hospital of Nikaia and the Laiko Hospital in Athens diagnosed with autoimmune haeimatic anaemia (AAA). I had to have some blood transfusions.
Since then, I have been in therapy. I am making more dives, this time into myself and into the light.
I decided to work with institutions/hostels that take care of abused women, by offering free lessons in cyanoprinting, and women who are suffering from an autoimmune disorder. I want to share my knowledge and experiences with them in a way that will help them take steps to make their own plunge into the deep, both their inner and outside worlds.
As an archaeologist/museologist
I studied history of art at the National Kapodistriakon University of Athens, at the Sorbonne University (Paris 1, DEA), the Ecole du Louvre, and at the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. I have worked in galleries and in museums in Athens and abroad, Archaeology was from the start my first choice and I have participated in three excavations as a volunteer.
And even though I did not end up as a female Indiana Jones or as a deep sea diver investigating shipwrecks, as I had dreamed of becoming in my twenties, at least my love of archaeology persists undiminished.
But although I managed to avoid every attempt to turn myself into a civil servant (something my mother dreamed of), I never did earn a living from archaeology.
As a guide
I became a certified guide (in English and in French) with the Ministry of Culture in 2013, after following the Ministry’s rapid seminars at the Ionian University. I worked as a guide from 2018 (2000+ hours) with the Alternative Athens agency, where I learned the art of storytelling with Vasilia Economou and of guiding people with impaired sight at the Lighthouse for the Blind. On 16 May 2022, I led the first guided tour in Greece – and one of the first in Europe – for the blind around the Acropolis, in English. Over my five years of working as a guide, I gained the confidence of many groups of people with special needs, both physical and mental, a great honor.
I have lived abroad for more than ten years and speak seven languages very well.
As a teacher
I was responsible for educational programs at the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art on the island of Andros from 2006 through 2012.
In 2013 I participated in the construction of a kindergarten in North Vietnam as an Action Aid volunteer.
I have worked in IEK, in the municipal studio of plastic arts in Agia Paraskevi (Athens), and privately.
Recently I followed a series of classes in Special Education at Athens University and “Therapy through the Plastic Arts,” a one-year course offered by the University of the Aegean.
I have designed and created workshops for refugees both abroad and in Athens, at the former camp at Elaionas, among others.
I find the role of the teacher very important – and very demanding – and this is why I enjoy far more the role of student than that of the educator.
As a writer
I have published four books of poetry, one one-act play, and a book for older children (or children of any age), which can be downloaded free of charge as either ebooks or audiobooks and which have also been printed in Braille. I love stories. Writing, reading, and music are like breathing for me. I have no idea where I would be today without books.
As a creator
At times, I have taken up playing the piano and the classical guitar, drawing, modeling with clay (Paris), and pottery making/ceramics (for more than ten years). I got my first camera – an old analog Canon (my father’s) – when I completed my first year at University, and since then I have followed seminars with many instructors, such as Nikos Economopoulos, Platonas Rivellis, and others.
Basically, photography is a first-class justification for exploring the world, savoring my solitariness without guilt (here you can see photographs from my most recent trips) – but it has also been the occasion for meeting people who would become some of my dearest friends.
I have participated in several group photography exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
And the illustrations in the children’s book I wrote in 2021 are my own.
Soon I will be presenting my second one-person show of cyanoprints from my photographs and photograms at the same time as I launch my fourth book of poems, "οξυγόνο δύο" (Oxygono 2).