Artemis Hatzigiannaki is a talented notary with a talent in painting, who evolved into a remarkable painter. Her favorite themes are Smyrna and Athens, which she represents with a unique sensitivity and originality.

She grew up in a large family which traditionally raised good scientists.

Since 3 years old, she would feel a great attraction towards painting and would paint endlessly.

Sometime during primary school, she was assigned to paint the story of the exploding of the Turkish flagship by Konstantinos Kanaris on a wall of her school.

Despite being a young girl, she managed to complete this artistic task standing for weeks on a ladder, as she was too short.

Between art and science

During the next years she found her artistic comrade, her architect brother, who believed in her talent and suggested her plenty of painting themes.

In the fifth class of high school, she enrolled in painting courses and told no one but her mother.

Being, however, a student of theoretical sciences high school of that time, she was unable to take exams for School of Architecture, as a last attempt to infiltrate painting into her studies.

After her entering in Law School, a period of denial towards painting rose.

“I made the decision that I would never study the one thing I loved; I would take on other things in my life, like sciences, languages and post-graduate studies”.

She graduated Law School with excellent marks and evolved into a successful notary.

Everything on her life seemed to roll great, until the economical crisis and the collapse of real estate happened.

Clients would stop caring about the quality of her work and started wanting the job done with the minimum cost.

Perfectionist Artemis, an experienced and heavily educated in Greece and abroad person, fell into an existential spiral.

It was around that time that her daughter expressed her will to study architecture and enrolled into architectural designing and painting classes to prepare for her exams.

One day in 2011, Artemis visited her daughter’s painting class teacher to discuss on her progress; she then confessed her love towards painting.

The teacher asked to see something from her portfolio, and immediately saw the potential. “Did you ever consider going seriously into painting?”, she asked.

Painting courses

In January 2014, “Ardittos” Cultural Association of Mets, Athens announced the starting of a Visual Arts Department for adults, run by member of the association and a professor of School of Fine Arts George Kazazis.

Artemis’ husband encouraged her to enroll and even brought her magazines and painting tutorials, such as “Learning to Paint” etc.

Her teacher stood over Artemis’ table in the very first lesson and wondered: “What kind of sensitivity is this; have you attended any painting courses in the past?”

For the next months, she would constantly paint with watercolors and show the results to her teacher to receive his feedback.

In August 2014 she had her first painting exhibition in the village Pyrgos of Santorini, with and attendance of 200 people in its opening.

The exhibition was very successful and her morale was boosted.

Later on, she attempted to present her work in artistic spaces in Athens, but had no answer to the constant asking of which Arts School she graduated from.

She placed her works in a ground floor in Mets, where she exhibited them to friends and other people who would be interested.

She would meanwhile keep attending the courses at the association, where she would participate in group exhibitions and other visual activities, always under the same professor.

Memories of Smyrna

For her next 3 exhibitions based on Smyrna, Artemis started to use faces with motion and a deeper expression of feeling in her works.

“When I am painting about Smyrna, faces cannot be unexpressive or even have a random expression. I draw my inspiration from my family’s memories and works of literature, and I consider my mission to be the expression of the feeling and the scent of the atmosphere of these times”.

Her both parents are from Smyrna; the loss of this birthplace is a wound that will never heal.

She attempts to deal it through painting, but deep inside she might not even want to heal it.

She has her origins in place that feels non-existent. She has travelled there, yet it reminded her of nothing.

Greek presence has been completely eradicated from Smyrna, leaving nothing of its magic. It is a nice city, but nothing more than this.

The magic of Athens

After Smyrna, Artemis wished to illustrate Athens, her other big love.

She lives in a penthouse in Mets, from which she watches Acropolis and Lykavittos all day and all night long.

In her works, she revives 60s Athens, the clothes, the motorcycles, the parties, the escalators of Omonoia Square, Santa Claus of Minion store, the kiosks and the balloons that drove children crazy.

“My parents would send me for a newspaper and I would come back with a Mickey Mouse comic in hand as well. If the kiosk owner run out of change, he would give me candy. Sometimes he would even give me chocolate. Take it and eat it, your dad will pay for it tomorrow.”

It was a magical time. Greece had started drawing away from the war and the civil war and was entering an age of optimism.

Jobs were many and families were starting to stand on their feet.

Society started becoming extrovert, life quality was improving, and Greeks experienced the entering of photography, new music and new vocabulary in their lives.

Countless hours

Artemis Hatzigiannaki, a professional notary on the one hand, practices a profession hiding extreme dangers and difficulties. A minor mistake in her work can destroy her career.

Being also a painter, on the other hand, a minor mistake will not condemn her, but can even set her free and be the reason to revisit the beauty of the world though another angle.

She is one the thousands of women of Greece who carried an artistic vision, but one of the few who achieved to make it into a way of life and income.

She loves her work and is very sad to part with them.

She can be very patient while painting, working countless hours to put exactly what she feels in her depths on paper.

“Only when a painting is finished I make peace with its idea and theme. Until that time, I experience contradictory feelings, either attraction or repulsion. If my teacher notices my work is visually good, I might feel safe, but not always”.

All works of Artemis are watercolor paintings, which because of their light and almost transparent aesthetic do not allow any mistakes or retouches.

She is using top quality handmade paper, which she is extra careful not to stain at all, as it is impossible to correct and makes the restarting of the whole work inevitable.

Not a single drop of water should fall on the paper.

Unforgettable experience

Artemis’ last exhibition at the Museum of the City of Athens, titled “Smyrna-Athens, Ubi bene ibi patria”, meaning “home is where I lay my head”, was a real pleasure for the eyes.

The visitors’ tour in the evocative spaces of the Museum, carried by the artist herself, was an unforgettable experience.
TEXT: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com