In 1998 I made a solo exhibition in Syros Island, the place where the great Marcos Vamvacaris was born, grew up and learned to play the bouzouki; his songs gather inside the music and words of rebetiko, expressions and emotions of the damned of the whole world. In the tribute to Marcos Vamvacaris, my paintings had references to particular songs of his, while at the same time I tried to somehow express their music through painting. I painted “Marco’s dream”, “Flood”, “Reverberate the prison cells” and some more. Finally, I created the painting “Island Mountains”, in which the Great Artists Marcos Vamvacaris from Syros, Andreas Embirikos from Andros and Yannoulis Chalepas from Tinos, gaze together over the Tinian mountain of Tsiknias upon the Aegean Sea.
In 2001 I painted pictures from inside the Central Athens Market, mainly from the Meat Market. I felt that the portrayal of carcasses is an extreme depiction of the human figure itself as it tries to stay alive and repel violence. I showed these works in my retrospective exhibition that same year in an exhibition hall of the City of Athens.
