“I have been painting for as long as I can remember. Wherever I went, I always had a sketchbook with me. Thirty years ago, I started experimenting with ceramics to explore my love of color. I treated clay as an extension of my painting, a material with infinite possibilities.

After studying painting and ceramics for many years, I set up my own studio in the area of Aphidnes, just outside Athens. A quiet retreat surrounded by nature, where I could focus on my art. The natural world has always been my greatest inspiration — its beauty, majesty, and extraordinary variety.

My father taught me the essential truths about life and art. One day, when I was six, he surprised me by bringing home a piano. This was my initiation into the world of music. My father was passionate about the arts. He bought me my first sketchbook and encouraged me to express myself with color. A brilliant mechanical engineer, he adored his family, but he could be a harsh critic. Whenever I showed him something I had made, my father would say: ‘Yes, but this needs more work.’

I was born in Moschato, a seaside suburb of Athens. I grew up by the sea, a constant source of inspiration. In the local taverns, I listened to legendary musicians such as Vasilis Tsitsanis, Yannis Papaioannou, Marika Ninou and Sotiria Bellou playing rembetika, the mournful songs of Greek refugees and rebels. All these indelible memories and images define my work — a lifelong quest to sculpt my dreams and desires with clay. After all, clay itself has a memory, a truth which I hold sacred.”