Leaving Athens and Adding to Artist Statement

We're leaving Athens today and heading back home. I'm expecting to get stopped in security in Munich, Germany because of some really cool beach stones I picked up in Rhodes for use in Senior Sem.

Anyways, I had an idea on a little something to add for my statement. We visited the Temple of Haphaistus yesterday, which is remarkably intact. My brother found a Greek spur-thigh tortoise behind the temple, chomping away on some plants. The temple and tortoise gave me an awesome idea, a Haphaistus (also spelled Hephaestus) armor suit that uses a sun bleached turtle shell that a friend gave me.

Here's where I'm adding something to my statement. I'm going to draw influences from ancient cultures and civilizations that originate from countries that I've visited.

I'm leaving soon, so that's all for this update.

Athens

Well, I'm an international criminal now....

Upon arrival in Athens at 8:00 AM, we took the Metro to our hotel. We were stopped by the Metro Police on our transfer for not validating our tickets, which is a $1,000 fine! Luckily we have most likely gotten out of it, we think.

Other than that mishap, everything has been amazing! I've been to the Ilias Lalaounis Jewellry Museum, the National Archaelogoy Museum (incredile), and the Acropolis at sunset.

Greece Update 2

Very cool stuff! I visited the Mordern Art Museum of Greece yesterday. There was a solo exhibit for an artist called Fasianos who designed the current stamp being used in the country. I'll have pics from that once I return home. There were some other very interesting pieces in the main building as well.

Today my brother and I went to Pataloudes and Chalki while our parents stayed in town. It was an awesome trip!!! The migratory moths had just arrived in the Pataloudes valley. Trees and rocks were covered in thousands of brightly colored moths for the entire valley! In Chalki we were lucky enough to see a traditional Greek Orthodox funeral procession. A Crucifix was carried in front of a small truck. The priest chanted while standing on the back of the truck, which carried the woman's unpreserved body, no casket included. A small group of mourners walked behind the truck, wearing all black, in the blazing sun. The town itself was fascinating as well.

I'm off to dinner now. Expect to see a ton of photos soon.

Most Difficult Post Ever!

I'm in Rodos, Greece currently! The reason this is such a difficult post is because I'm typing on a Greek keyboard, the websites are in Greek, and it's not air conditioned in here. Anyways, here's what I've been up to.

Day 1

Bon Voyage

I'll be leaving from Greece tomorrow, at an early hour in the morning. Don't expect any updates for 10 days or more. In fact, there probably won't be any communication during those 10 days. It's not that I don't love you all enough, it's just what I do on these trips.

Anyways, I only have a short down time after returning from the Aegean before I head off for the Pamunky reservation in the Williamsburg area for a week. Again, there probably won't be any contact with the outside world during this trip. Expect a mind numbing amount of photos, sketches, ideas, and tales when I get back.

Rhodes, Greece will help me out a lot with the armor/wearable pieces. And even better, our hotel in Athens is right down the street from a metal smith's shop, and a good one at that!

I will see you all in July.

Dynastic Chinese Armor

My brother was searching for Vietnamese armor last night for some reason. It ended up with nothing but Chinese armor showing up in the search results. Needless to say, some of it was really cool! So, here you go, Dynastic-era armor from Ancient China. I have no clue what dynasty they're from because I cannot read Mandarin Chinese.

Mathiad Gmachi

I found Mathias when searching for a decent EL wire distributor.

Mathias is very different from the typical artist. He's a multidisciplinary artist and researcher, working with everything from visual arts to music concerts, interdisciplinary culture to political experiments, a general aesthetics to farming construction. He has participated in festivals, exhibitions, and museums all over the world (Barcelona, Venice, New York CIty, Sydney, Frankfurts, and Montreal to name a few).

He is currently researching with Jon Wozencroft for a program that merges arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

Anyways, here's some of his awesome light artwork using EL wire.

Sonumbra (on display at the MoMa)


This one is best seen in video form;