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John
Kalokyris - Brief Biography
Symbols - Influences |
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John Kalokyris was born in As you can easily understand, he
is irrevocably influenced by the Cretan land, the colorful mountains of the greens
and herbs, the elves and fairies of Crete, the brindled goats and the
thousands of smells lingering
in the air, the warm light of the island (sometimes
harsh and unforgiving and sometimes sweet and playful), but
also from the sea around, the
island’s kites and eagles, the flying rabbits and turtles,
the flying saucers etc etc. |
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The people of Crete and their occupations have
influenced him also
deeply. The old women and the black-dressed men with their colorful personalities, the alien verger, the mermaids, the lyres, the
lutes, the looms and colorful weavings, the hoes,
the scythes, the rifles and the shots.
Everyone had something magical (and stubborn) upon him and
each one of them was a special case. When he was young he noticed that people, when seen from the front, had clear
outlines (ie, one started where the
other one ended) and that they
seemed to be lonely (although he met them quite often
in large groups). But when seen from the side, the outlines fade and things tended to be more mixed (somehow, everything and everyone were
interconnected). |
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Techniques - Motifs |
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These influences appear as recurring motifs / elements
in his drawings. So often in his art work we can see large noses (to smell better),
big eyes (to see better), colorful mountains filled with small colored objects, various kinds of
strange birds and flying balloons floating here and there, sea water, fish and seabeds,
brindled goats, exotic trees and suspicious / unsuspecting
figures with clear (and sometimes not so
clear) outlines, magicians, mysterious symbols, Suns and Moons, primordial sources of Light and Darkness etc etc. His paintings are colorful or black and white, made by combining traditional techniques with other more
modern. He uses mostly tools
with solid “nose” on the bottom side (pencils, pens, markers, crayons etc.), but also watercolors and acryllic colors (he prefers
oils mainly in food and salads). One techique he likes is the semi - digital painting (the original drawing is always
made using natural media - then digitized - and finally the colors are applied with simulated natural paint brushes in computer). |
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Various other mixed techniques such as collageographies, silkwormographies,
ornithographies, lacerographies, woodendoorographies, eggomytographies etc, are also used. |
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Activities - Publications |
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His interests - apart from
teaching and education - are the study of starry heavens and the mysteries of the Universe and of course the illustration and writing of children's books.
Quite often he combines or "dress" his
drawings with TEXT, using the technique of explanatory or notational pointing - just
like the rest of his family ("this is a
leg ...”, “ cheese pies need to warm up
before you eat them”) etc etc. Until 1998 he used in his works the pseudonym JBG, but after his visit in the island Arran (an island in Scotland near Glasgow)
and the communication he had with the
spirits of the forest and
his meeting with the local Druids, he decided to sign as Arran. |
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He is self-taught in the field of illustration (as in several other areas also), but he considers as his teachers (even from a distance) many different painters and cartoonists, whose work he studied closely. You can see here:
"Favorite painters, cartoonists" the
most important of them. His cartoons and
drawings have been published in newspapers and magazines and many of his paintings are in
private collections and were occasionally exposed to
digital art galleries online.
His first book for children
(and adults also) entitled "THE WATER THAT MAKES YOU
INVISIBLE AND THE OLD – SHE – DEVIL WITH THE 100 HUMPS", released in May 2013. |
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Flying in the countryside… |
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Fauna and flora of the next forest
…with colorful trees. |
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2011 - 4552 John Kalokyris – The images and content of this site are for personal and preview use only.
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