My contemporary icons come from the desire to make the orthodox icon closer to a modern believer. If we look in the past we will see that the Church used to be the leader in the development of art. All new tendencies in art and all new styles started from within the Church. In other words, Orthodox artists were the most up-to-date artists of their time and as such they influenced the art of the whole world. For example, a Persian emperor from the 8th century asked Byzantine iconographers to his court when he desired for his portrait to be painted. It was like that until the 15th century and the political end of Byzantium. Since that time the Church art became less and less original, degrading to simple copying of the famous prototypes from the past. That tendency reached its peak in the 20th century when iconography came down to a decorative art, only reproducing the old forms.

In the recent years more and more Orthodox iconographers are abandoning that practice and starting to create new, original icons, made in the spirit of time of their creation, just as it was with the old Byzantine icons. My desire to join them and return to the roots of iconography made me start looking for the elements of contemporary art that could be integrated into the orthodox art. That is what the ancient Christian artists did - they took the best elements of the pagan art from their surroundings and transformed them into Christian art.

The icons I paint in this way are original. That means that I made the drawings and color choices myself. In spite of their modern look these icons are completely Orthodox with all the elements an Orthodox icon should consist of. My main inspiration to start painting this way was the work of Fr. Skliris Stamatis. I'm also inspired by the greatest works of impressionists, post impressionists and expressionists.

Christ Emanuil AVAILABLE! Size: 14.3 x 11.8 inches (36.5 x 30 cm) Price: 370€	Jesus Christ	Theotokos
Jesus Christ	Crucifix	Forefather Adam AVAILABLE! Size: 3.1 x 2.3 inches (8x6 cm) Price: 25€