NATALIASTATHI_PORTFOLIO.pptx-------------------

Natalia Stathis Fine Arts Portfolio Application for the WILLEM DE KOONING ACADEMY.

1. Entry Portfolio Natalia Erasmia Stathi ( student : 1095089)

2. Table of Contents 01 Self-portrait: Who am I? 02 The Golden Love between Father and Daughter 03 04 The Tiger inside of me 05 Fathers Lessons 06 The storm of Adulthood Sketchbook : 15min Graffity style Just a Girl Architecture Project: One with the Jungle Antikus Modernus Momentum The Innocent Face of Nature My Dream The rules of COVID Sketches- Human Faces Nature will win Honorable warrior 07 All diffrent but all woman 08 09 1o 11 12 Value of food 13 14 15 16 17 18

3. For most people that is one of the most difficult questions to ask. For me it is too… Natalia is my name 18 is my age This is my Face, I draw, I paint, I dive, I play Volleyball… In this and in the following paintings I am trying to take some steps towards the answer for this question and show you what I have already discovered about me … SELF - PORTRAIT: Who am I? FIRST WORK PHOTO GRAPHIT DRAWING But who am I? What makes me me ?

4. After I read your requirements for the Portfolio and understood that you wanted to understand who I am, I decided to introduce myself through a self-portrait in the First work and step by step show you my world and how I view it afterwards. But the problem was: Who am I exactly? Process What makes me me ? How can I portrait who I am on picture ? What kind of selfportrait should I do? Inspiration : What technique should I use ? While applying was trying out a new technique , which uses graphit powder for a smother texture , so I wante to try it out for skin too ( here used in the waves ): Graphit powder At first I wanted to paint myself while looking in the mirror, then with my wetsuit or with a volleyball, in a setting, with my friends or with my father, however, afterwards I figured no matter what I do, something will be missing, so I decided to just paint myself without anything else. Just me In what setting should I be ?

5. Inspired by Flora Borsi . The Tiger inside of me. Through this project, I aimed to highlight my inner self and reflect my inner strength, uniqueness and wisdom. In inspiration with the photographs of Flora Borsi I decided to let my inner animal speak for me. The White Tiger with the seldom green eyes for my strength, uniqueness & individuality and for my spiritual wisdom and inner calmness Colored pencil on cardboard (I have green eyes too )

6. The Golden Love of Father and Daughter . One year ago I created this Acrylic painting as a birthday present for my father. In the painting we see the 3-year-old me and my 32-year-old father in the sea in front of our house. The reason I included this painting is to better answer the question of who I am, since my Father is one of the biggest parts of me. Furthermore I believe it shows the unconditional love between father and daughter, as well as what that love is meant to look like. It shows how the father helps the daughter to fly, while also ensuring that she will not fall. The process: The initial idea was to use yellow as an undertone for a warmer shade of blue (seen in a youtube video and I wanted to try it out). 'But as I painted, I realized It matched the atmosphere and overall feeling of that particular moment marvelously. So, I went along with it and modified my plan whilst painting

7. As a supplement to the former piece: Fathers lessons This scene occurred after my brother (the boy in the picture) and I were playing a soccer game and he injured his leg and started crying. Taking advantage of the situation, I made fun of him and said, “You're not a man. You're a crybaby". At that point, my father intervened, scolded me and said being a real man meant being vulnerable and being able to cry sometimes . He hugged my brother and explained that it was alright to cry and that he should never feel less of a man for showing how he felt and that he just needed to learn from his mistakes and do better next time. I believe that this is a good example of how man should be raised, since most of man are afraid to express their feelings fearing judgment like mine. This is a small coloured pencil drawing that I put on a small card (10cm×15cm) as a present my brother would give my father

8. My Dream This acrylic painting represents not just a dream I used to have but how or subconsciousness guides us through life. This Manta Ray is like my spiritual animal, my subconsciousness. When it comes, it brings out all the goodness and light in me. It helps me to let go of all the pain and suffering of reality (the red dress becomes lighter). Its touch, rises peace and wisdom within me and makes me see my way again. It's as if something inside us is guiding us into the right direction. Simultaneously, during dreams our consciousness, or in my words our spirit animal, awakens and guides us even clearer the way.

9. The storm of adulthood Inspiration: Adulthood comes like a wild, colorful, scary and simultaneously beautiful storm . I am right now in a state of life where my childhood is nearly completely over. I am moving to a new country in order to study… completely alone . It seems so overwhelming at times, but than again so beautiful and exciting . And if I overcome this scary first part and find my calm inside the storm and than the way through it, I will hopefully reach my dreams and wishes (Symbolized by the night sky and shouting stars). In inspiration of : Man and cloud by Solomon Nikritin

10. Sketches- Human faces The majority of these sketches were made within 5 to 10 min. It could be a Person I have seen on the street with some special something about them. It could be a Fantasy character or what I imagine a character from a book I'm reading would look like. It could be a person I've been thinking about. That is why I draw some on paper towels, others while walking and the next, while studying or working.

11. With this Acrylic painting on Canvas I aimed to show That this young lady is just a young lady. Nowadays, we have to many problems in our society. Every art work wants to critic or demonstrate on something. We need a normal. We need more people saying: “oh what a nice young lady” without needing to think of gender- equality or racism anymore. I am looking for the future where she will be just a girl. Just a Girl

12. With this series of works (first step: marker; Second step: colored pencil) I wanted to show the different faces of women, not only the different races, but that we are not all alike. We can be strong, but we can also be vulnerable. We can be a girly girl, but also a tuff girl... All different but all Woman

13. Momentum This charcoal drawing is meant to represent the beauty of the moment. I was inspired by the music of my favorite band: Black Pink While I was listening to their music, I felt as if time stood still and the beauty of the moment came to light. So I tried to stop time... The woman in the picture is Lisa, the main dancer and lead rapper of the band.

14. I tried to combine this drawing , in which I felt the time had stopped , with Lisa Same technique as Self-portrait

15. Honorable Warrior While I was trying to paint ( Watercolour ) a city that had been overtaken by Nature I scribbled on another paper a Chinese looking man and started to have more fun sketching 3 more Chinese man or later on fighters. That made me think of the movie Mulan and inspired me to draw a honorable fighter or protector. Endresult :

16. The Rules of COVID Inspired by ROY LICHTENSETEIN During COVID, many people suffered from either death, illness, loneliness, the inability to adapt, etc. Personally, it was very frustrating to be unable to see my friends or go outside without texting the Government first. I felt like my childhood and my freedom had been stolen. There was a bunch of different new rules. At times it seemed a bit like a joke to me, since most of the rules here in Greece served not to protect us from COVID, but rather to pressure us to get vaccinated. They either paid us to get vaccinated or they didn't allow unvaccinated people to enter a store even if they had a valid rapid test, whereas vaccinated people could go anywhere without a test, although they could still have COVID. That's why during the second lockdown, after seeing Lichtenstein's POP art exhibit, I was inspired to make my own version of what the COVID rules looked like to me. Acrylic painting

17. Value of food Initially, I wanted to voice my frustration over the contrast between rich and poor: "The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer". In Africa, 278 million people, 20% of the continent's population, suffer from chronic hunger (10% worldwide). Whereas other people have more money than they can spend. However, later on I figured that rather than criticizing the issue for the millionth time, I should do a piece that demonstrates how we should value our food, especially in the "rich" countries. That is why I made an Oil painting of a single fruit in its natural form and color and a charcoal drawing of the masses of "perfect" looking, Fake tasting fruit that we have in our Supermarket and 12% are not even sold but thrown away. First Idea ( sketch ):

18. Process of the Oilpainting

19. Nature will win This Watercolor painting was inspired by a abandoned car I saw in my village from which grass was slowly growing. Later, I started to wonder whether I could use it to illustrate that Nature is going to continue to exist after us. Nature may take some time after us and it will probably change, but it won't die. We, on the other hand, are digging our very own grave.

20. Process First I was thinking to make a lot of diffrent pieces on that topic . I wanted to make a train haning from a cliff , a Shipwrack underwater … But than I realized trough the car i had seen on my village , that with a tree coming from a car it could be best portraited that nature will overcome humanity First Sketch: What destroys Natur - or trys to-, will be destoyed by Nature

21. The Innocent Face of Nature With this colored pencil drawing I wanted to emphasize the vulnerability and innocence of Nature and its wildlife. Originally, the idea of drawing a monkey first came to me at school when I was scribbling over my notebook. Apes are the most human-like animals. So I thought that people would probably identify with them more and attach more meaning to them. Furthermore, they could use them as example of how to live in harmony with nature. I chose a young monkey to emphasize its vulnerability, like children. Perhaps in this way more people would want to protect these beings, same as they would protect their own children .

22. Architecture Project : One with the Jungle This school project was called “ideal architecture”. It had to be completely ecological and independent. Without limits in terms of money or construction difficulties, it only had to be able to accommodate a family of 6 so that they do not have to leave this place and become one with the environment we have chosen. I chose the Amazona as location and used one of the existing 70m tall trees as my fundament for the house. I included a main living Area, Garden house, Garage, Sports center, maids quarter‘s , a Storage and a private Train route to the next village . Only Green Energy would be used and the plants underneath the building would be accomendation for birds and other animals ( Inspired by the Singaporean Garden by the Bay->pic.3) Tatlin’s Tower 3D Model: Garden by the Bay

23. Antikus Modernus This work was a school project in my arts class . The task was to design a dress which combines past , nature and modern life . As half greek I choose the Antike as time periode , wood for the natural- aspect and the style of combination and design, as well as music and walk during the fashion walk for the modern touch . On the following page you can see the process and Idea behind this creation . ANCIENT GREECE Wood

24. Idea gathering ANCIENT GREECE First sketches The criteria for my design were simple. I wanted to combine classic Greek Antiquity with a contemporary twist. Thus, for the Hellenic aspect, I chose the white dress, the leather bands, gold accessories and an overall simple and lightweight style. By revealing more skin and using wooden elements as a non-classical, asymmetric and organic aspect, I wanted to represent the contemporary edge. First Idea : recreate the godes Athena I got the Idea with the wood elemnts after finding it in the forrest . I did not make a sketch but started emediently to work

25. Wood The dress is out of two parts . The top is made out of an old scarf “ and the wood element , combined with leather bands. 1. Burn 2, Break 3. Holes for the leather band 4. „ gluing “ it to the required shape The bottom is made out of a large Bedsheet Accessoires Process I left one elastic rubber Protection under the wood

26. The following sketches are some of my favorites from this sketchbook. I first started trying out this style when I first moved from Germany to Greece and was exploring my new city (Thessaloniki) and its street art. In many cases - I just walked around the city and drew whatever caught my eye. S Sketchbook : Graffity style sketches ( made in 15 min each )

27. Thank You For letting me introduce myself through the art that showed me who I am