Konstantinia Gogou

New Life (Self Portrait)
Medium: Acrylic, 40 x 40cm

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Artist Statement 

Painting for me is in its essence transforming our emotions and ideas into colour, shapes and images; a metamorphosis. I consider my work to be a study of the world around me and the emotions that come with it, especially the ones I do not fully comprehend, as it is curiosity for the unknown that’s pushing me forward and helping me change and evolve. 

When the theme for this year’s exhibition was announced the first thing that came to my mind was my ongoing pregnancy. It clicked gracefully inside me as in this very moment I am going through a complete physical and emotional transformation that is as natural as is extraordinary. That’s why I decided to paint a self-portrait depicting the metamorphosis of my body, nurturing a new life, a new soul, soon to come into the world. My main goal is sharing this very intimate moment as a woman becoming a mother for the first time and as a painter observing the day-to-day changes on my own body and translating that information on the canvas. For this painting I chose vibrant warm colours for the background to represent life and lilies to symbolise fertility, femininity and rebirth. I painted myself in black and white to highlight my newly acquired curved figure but also to keep it timeless, kind of how an old photograph holds just a fleeting moment in time. 

Artist Profile

I was born in 1990 and grew up in Greece and migrated to Australia four years ago. My fondest memories of my life are the vast mountainscapes of my hometown and my mother painting, and that’s where I draw my inspiration from. I am a self-taught artist and creating art is my way of finding my inner peace, balance, expressing my emotions and connect with my memories on a visual level.