George Zarkadas • Artist

Let me introduce myself as an artist by way of a film shot.  In this time lapse video you will see me painting the first layer of an image of a group of Afghanee refugees gathered in Victoria square in downtown Athens in the fall of 2010.  I interviewed these people and created a short film entitled Desperate Afghanee Refugees.  Their story and their faces remained with me and in time I began to draw their portraits with graphite on paper.  It then occurred to me to paint a group portrait, as I remembered them on this desperate fall evening.  From my original video footage I chose the faces I would include and arranged them in the manner you will see here.  Using projection as I guide, I painted the first layer of my group portrait in acrylics.  I am now ready to begin adding more layers of color and texture in oils.  It has been a long creative process, but in this two-minute shot, you can see how the image begins to take shape on linen.  I intend to show these Afghanee people as they were when I first encountered them.  I will exhibit an installation including paintings, drawings, video projections and articles lost by refugees on their perilous journey from Afghanistan.