Speculation on “voyage” and Ithaca constantly returns in my work, each time presented in a different way. The idea of the series of works “Portraying Odysseus, 15 Pictures together with Texts and Poems” matured in the summer of ’89, when we arrived from Lefkada to Ithaca on a friends’ boat. I began depicting Odysseus’ cycle inside the epic of Homer, using oil on wood, making at the same time references to personal experiences in the Greek landscapes. I finished it in 1993 and presented it at the House of Cyprus and shortly thereafter in Ithaca within the frameworks of the 7th International Congress on Odyssey.
My 15 pictures are the following: 1) Odysseus departs from his island on the long journey. 2) After ten years in Troy the war is over. 3) On the island of the little goddess Calypso. 4) From aboard his vessel Odysseus sees the open shore with the Sirens. 5) Meeting the enchantress Circe. 6) On the island of the Lotophagi (Lotus-eaters). 7) Odysseus escapes from the Cave of Cyclops Polyphemus. 8) Between Scylla and Charybdis. 9) In the palace of King Alcinous. 9) Nausicaa is left alone. 11) Odysseus wakes up in the morning in Ithaca after a 20-year journey. 12) Liberator. 13) Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus. 14) Ithaca is my hometown. 15) And now what?
