My oil paintings are based on further reflection on the Garden of Eden depictions known from religions and cultures. This sacred place is a point of contact since religions with different doctrines have similar conceptions of Paradise - almost identical images -, most often identified with the garden. Perhaps it is human nature and evolution to cling to a lush, safe plant community, idealizing it and recreating it, maybe in the form of a painting. The presentation of this process through painting offers an opportunity for a contemporary representation of plant ornamentation, but also for a personal conviction and a presentation of different points of view: what does Paradise mean here and now?
     I find it so interesting that while in the past millennia plants have surrounded us in unchanging shapes, we humans have tried to distort the original form, to bundle them up, to cut them into shapes and adapt them fit our own ideas, according to the actuality of our relationship with them. We decorate our homes with plants and flowers, we basically want to be surround ourselves with an atmosphere of paradise, creating oases in the built environment that give the illusion of nature. The increased interest in plant care and the use of plants as decorative elements in interior design, textiles and wallpapers is becoming increasingly important today. All this inspires my oil paintings, which aim to evoke the "very first garden", Paradise.

photo credit: @fotostibi