Interview with Maro Zacharogianire
1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.
Art was my second degree; I studied marketing to take over the family business. But when I returned from London, I was suffocating… I joined an art school and was admitted in the Athens School Of Arts something that was very difficult to achieve and ranked 5th in the admission. I think that if you believe in something very vividly the cosmos will bring it to you… thus when entering the gates of the school the first time I heard a voice inside me that said At last!! It was karma.
2. Describe what a normal day looks like as an artist.
There goes no day with out painting, even if it is on a scrap of paper… Since I moved to a village near Messolonghi at the west costs of Greece, life is very calm and the rhythm of the village is all it takes to be energetic and not asphyxiated by the city. I wake up and take my coffee, I cook and eat then the afternoon I have a seminar that I attend or a seminar where I teach… and when the clock rings 9 pm the inspiration is starting to rise until 3am I am painting or looking at my painting… some pieces are concluded in two days some other two weeks… or two months my top duration.
3. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.
The best art related experience is after researching performance and theater for about 8 years… I woke up one day eager to paint with the exact vision of content and form. I knew what to paint and how… it was something that came to me from the sky it was an apocalypse, since then I have been painting with the same format, or style.
4. Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?
My early work in painting but also in the theater as a director, with my own text, were stages that I worked on in an autobiographical axis. Solitude and depression at first, love as war and psychosis, later love as magic and peace, since I met my new partner in life, where we both painted our relation, then a lot of animals were included in my pictures… then I started researching art and animals and was lead organically to Greek and Egyptian mythology. So I escaped the narcissistic autobiographical approach and entered a world of magic and myth, where I try to expose a pop culture through these images and a gay as in happy vibration.
5. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?
Art is my life, if I create I am able to be free and tied to my axis of understanding of the world. I do not separate art from life or life from art. They are very well tied together…. If we talk about life as part of a community, art has a lot to say and offer as viewers of a cruel world that undertakes war these days. Art has to face and judge the community of wars and the isolation of minorities.
6. Could you share any difficulties and hardships you had to face in life and how or if you managed/overcame them?
When in art school, I was disturbed with depression and faced difficult situations… I was in war with my dark side… it was a rough journey lasting 20 years where I have been in and out and off and up… Art was my savior... through this journey I reconciled with my inner me, and became very strong… depression is looking inside oneself and comprehending what you want and how to be… you set the boundaries… It is a journey inside.
7. Share your worst experience in the art world.
The worst experience in art?? Hmm.. When directing a play through experimentation directed by me, and knowing exactly what I wanted to achieve, and the play was going fine, then one of the actors said that we are all co directors, because the text was shaped through the experimentation and decided to inform all social media networks that I used them to create a play, where the play was created under my supervision, I told her that I will name the performance after the contribution of the team. When she performed in front of the crowd. She did all the things I asked her not to do.. and spoiled the performance leaving her co actor exposed… Sometimes you need to be very careful of the people we work with…or we deal with them accordingly... I answered to her appeal on social media, but that was very sad, because relations are very important, now I have shaped my own group, where there is understanding and respect and is built on healthy relationships.
8. What practical advice can you give to fellow artists?
My advice is never to give up, keep working and working hard… listen to your voice in side your stomach you will know when things are right, you will create your own glossary and you will know when something is right,,,, you can ask your friends on their opinion but first you have to decide yourself about whether a painting is complete or not.
9. What are you working on at the moment and are there any upcoming events you would like to talk about?
I have been painting constantly the last two to three years the collection of myths and tales from the Greek mythology, I have completed 15-20 large canvases 2mx2m and other smaller canvases, I am now entering the studio to make a new painting that will be the center of the exhibition a piece that will be 3mx5m.. At the same time I have discovered the joy of making clay sculptures and I am creating figures of my own personal mythology and that makes me happy, I am expecting an exhibition in Athens and later Berlin where I was invited to show the mythology collection. When the circle of this collection is completed… we will take the time and effort for a new performance with my team Yellow.