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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

American Embassy Exhibit-Artist Easel Program

Fourteen of my water/sea photographs are being exhibited for sale at the American Embassy until the end of October 2013.  They are exhibited in the embassy's media/conference room.  The exhibition is titled Sea in Your Self.  Unfortunatly I wasn't aware that the exhibition is only open to embassy employees, but I've posted pictures so you can have a glimpse...Please contact me if your interested in purchasing :)


SEA IN YOUR SELF

Artist Easel Program, U.S. Embassy, Athens, Greece

The natural element of water conveys a particularly strong pull within me.  I feel that water is a symbolic reflection of the female self.  Water remains itself even though it can be many different forms.  For example, a stream is flowing and fluid, it can move around rocks gently, easily, but with persistence.  It doesn’t let anything get in its way-it finds a way around it gracefully.  A woman to the core remains herself, but will have many sides of her personality and mood that can take many forms like water.  These actions of the water are representative of how a feeling or mood can feel inside to me and I capture that in a photograph.

Recently in my artwork, I’ve been revisiting a recurring theme that I enjoy playing with.  The classic concept: it’s not what you see on the outside that is important it’s what on the inside that counts.  The sea lends itself well to this concept for me.  As a whole it will always be the sea.  One step deeper, and on the surface it’s constantly morphing into shapes, splashes, bubbles, droplets, foam, spray and waves.  One can form their own opinions on how they react to it or their eyes perceive it.  But once you explore below the surface it’s a whole new, beautiful, deep, world inside. The sea is like our souls, it has depths that we will be forever exploring.  I’m not interested in photographing fish and corals to relay my theme.  Instead to show the depth, or the inside as I’ve said it, I use the shapes, reflections, bubbles and colors which I see that nature has presented to me.  It’s these multiple layers of the sea that suggest what is within.

Melissa studied at Youngstown State University in Ohio and majored in Visual Art and Multi-Age Licensure in Art Education.  She received a Bachelors of Science in Education, and taught high school Art I for one year before moving to Greece.  She is particularly drawn to the sea saying, “ The sea is inviting, clear, clean.  It’s amazing the depth it holds and the distance I can see into it.  It’s mesmerizing and meditative.  I can watch it for hours, noticing the patterns and reflecting shapes, feeling the rhythm of the tide, listening to the crashing, splashing, and bubbling on the shore.  It’s alive.  It’s moving energy.   I am centered there, relaxed, at peace.”

Melissa Acierno-Vlahos                                                     
www.melissavlahos.com                                                                               
Athens, Greece                                                                                             
September 2013


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