how long have you been on deviantArt? what brought you here?Been on deviantArt for 2 years now, probably closing to 3 years soon. what brought me here was google..... hahaha
how did art come into your life?Hmm well, since i was very young (like 2 or 3) i liked drawing all the time, as i got older i got better and more into it, but i lived in a village in cyprus with my grandparents and weirdly had no idea that you can do art as a career, i found that out when i came to england..... so pretty much all my life i had a fascination and love of art, it keeps me sane and also insane
what are your plans, as an artist, going forward?i tend not to plan too much into the future because let's face i will be disappointed since nothing anyone wants comes true the way we all fantasize it to come, but i do want to get into a good art university, then start really living the "life of an artist" which in my head involves traveling and trying to force your work into galleries one way or another.....
what would you consider being successful, as an artist?i guess it would be once your artwork is recognized widely, and also when you say "yes i am a fucking artist"....
are you planning on a career as an artist? what do you need to do to get there?i do plan on a career as an artist, can't see myself doing anything else...... what i thought i needed to get there was hard work, lot's of inspiration, recognition and to stop getting in my own fucking way.......
you are the kind of artist that makes this group great! your work is perfect for it.
what about abstract expressionism appeals to you? did you ever make a choice to make that your style, or did it evolve over time? or maybe it just came to you instinctively?hmm well i guess is a little of both, the idea of abstract came instinctively but the idea of expressionism in abstract i made the choice once it started to evolve to abstract expressionism..... i always liked abstract for the freedom of no form and the way that you can experiment with different methods of creating an abstract piece......
i know you have a special technique that you use to create your paintings. could you tell us about it?my "special" technique involves me been very wet and quite dirty , it involves me painting in the rain for many hours, i get an idea of a painting i want to do... then i create outlines and thoughts of colour and some sort of form that i want. then i go outside in the rain and start painting the piece, the rain makes the acrylic paint mix and create textures and detail which i then manipulate.....
the idea is that i use the rain as another medium. i like the rain's unpredictability, no painting will be the same even if i use the same colours in the same manner to create the exact same painting and idea, the rain will turn each of them differently....
also for me rain is a beautiful symbol, it can be a negative one or a positive one depending on your views of rain..... i find it calming and dark with the presence of dreariness, but also has the thought that it can wash away all problems......
you draw as well as paint. they seem to have quite different styles. how did you develop your drawing style? do you prefer one to the other? your drawings are sharp and clean, quite perfect looking, while your paintings are more free, they have more raw emotion and seem to be more wild than the controlled drawings. how do you feel when you draw vs. paint?i don't prefer one to the other, i enjoy doing both of them equally. for the drawings i tend to do surreal stuff which has a form and because i like to add a lot of detail i prefer drawing them, for painting i prefer to do abstract so i can go nuts on ideas and use the paint to create abstract piece which lack some form.....
the thing is drawing vs. painting, is that the painting aspect (especially the rain pieces) are very much done at the moment, based on ideas and inspirations that have been thought out before starting them. i do put a lot of time into the paintings as well (like layering for detail and texture) but the initial idea or the start of the paintings are done in the moment that is raining, when it rains and i have an idea of a piece i am out there doing it. for the drawings is slightly different, i don't ever rush the drawings i take as much time as possible to finish them even if they take months.... abstract paintings, surreal drawings that's basically it.
you use unusual colors sometimes, like the pink in this one.
do you choose a palette before you start? i imagine you out in the rain with all your art supplies, and i wonder, how did you choose what to bring with you?usually i choose some colours before i start, then improvise parts as i go with the piece, so i might not bring all the colours i used outside with me so i keep going in and out when i get an idea of some crazy colour i want to make work...
for that particular piece (abstract rain: eye flow 6), i had it planned out that i wanted to use that really beautiful windsor blue, and also wanted the pink in there to break the gold and silver a little.
you say you spent 2 hours and 10 minutes in the rain, working while you were out there. can you describe what happens during that time? so on the day i did that piece it was raining quite a lot, i already had the piece prepared before hand with some oil details before i started it in the rain, i only worked on it in the rain for over 2 hours because in my "eye" it achieved the detail and flow i wanted, so after a few days of drying i worked on it with various ink pens to add some more detail... the whole point of the "eye flow" pieces was an idea that the gate of the soul (as it is know to be the eyes) is in a continuing flow, never stopping, piercing through every fucking body....... , i am probably planning on making enough eyes to cover a wall, so if presented in such way is just this dark thought of all eyes on you situation....
when i work,i have trouble knowing when paintings are finished, does that happen to you? how did you know when this work was finished?i never knew if this piece was finished, and i also have problem with knowing when a piece is finished....... nothing is finished, there is always more you can do, but at some point it will either get better or much much worse, which is why is sometimes hard to just stop and say it is done.....
do you feel confident about your work? there are some pieces i don't feel confident about them, and there is some i feel very good about, the thing is that sometimes i look back at the "good" pieces and i don't like them and then i might look again another time and i like them......... that's how i usually go, is very weird
please pick a painting that you're very happy with and tell me why you like it and what inspired it.hmm picking A painting that i am happy with, that is quite difficult to narrow down to one, if it was pick 6 then that would be easy, but i would say that this one......
"abstract rain:swallowed"
is one of my favourites. the title say's it all in some sense, it was a piece i did about the idea and thought of been swallowed or swallowing things down, which is something i feel and do. you get angry or sad or hate or any other kind of emotion or "feelings" and you swallow them down...... that's what i do, i swallow things down and at times i feel swallowed and engulfed in various hate or anger or depression............ and then i let some of my thoughts and darkness in art so i don't explode and make a mess........... very simple
as we reach the end of the interview, tell us a little bit about a work in progress that you have going on now.right now i just finished a drawing and i am starting next a series of drawings which will go together with a series of paintings that have the same idea and inspiration behind them, a series of surreal drawings and abstract paintings to counterpart them....
thank you very much for the interview. i think a lot of the members will really enjoy this, i know i had fun putting it together! 
these five works show us kyri's skill and original style...
stay tuned for more interviews and features!
