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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

SEEING THE TREES FROM THE FOREST

How I got the job...

Back in the Nineties I landed myself a job as an arts and entertainment writer for what is one of Greece’s largest newspaper publishers. Actually, I was shamefully unqualified to write about art, theatre, music as I had absolutely no credentials. Very few people in Greece end up doing what they study. Really! You’ll find unqualified teachers, doctors who buy their degrees from poor Balkan neighbours and then set up practice here as well as cleaners who may be architects and architects who are actually poets.

“The fact that you are not a frustrated artist doing this job may be a good thing,” declared an artist friend once. “At least you are open.” Truth is, I wasn’t a very critical critic.

I thought, “I may as well learn something about art while I’m at it.” So I rushed to gallery openings, got to meet and understand artists and spent a lot of time reading, reading, reading…

How I met the man...

Naturally, I attended many art events and got to meet creative people. One of my first articles was for a “Trees in Art” group exhibition at the Pierides Art Gallery featuring various depictions of nature by some of Greece’s most revered artists. At the time, I still couldn’t tell a Hadjikyriakis-Ghikas from a Dimitris Mytaras’ work. So there I was carefully scrutinising the paintings and taking notes.

I should also mention that I was fresh out of uni, fresh from Australia and looked more like a foreign exchange student than an art critic to be taken seriously. And I knew this. So, as you can imagine, I felt somewhat overwhelmed and uncomfortable when my husband, a marketing director with studies in something totally different, approached me. He asked me what I thought of the Hadjikyriakis-Ghikas’ work I was admiring and introduced himself as one of the exhibition's sponsors.

He was 15 years my senior, street-smart and quite sophisticated. We had little in common apart from the fact that we both stood infront of this beautiful tree - he, a "marketing man" with studies in something totally different, and I, an "art critic" with studies in a whole other direction.

It didn't take long for him to start introducing me around and helping me as much as he could. I appreciated his kindness and we became friends. An occasional movie, maybe a coffee after work and that's how it remained for a very long time...

Until…

But that’s another story...

So that’s how we met…not in the elevator, not at a party, not by having him run me over, not as a waitress and not at a protest rally – all of these were my Creative Lies. (The correct answer was 3).

And for all it’s worth – back then I didn’t even smoke. The smoking came later.

That’s also another story...

4 comments:

Sharon said...

Fun twists and turns from your embellishments to the facts. I enjoyed the journey.

The Novelist said...

Great story from someone who studied to be something else. Now I want to hear the rest of the story!

Propoquerian said...

So this career/study mismatch...do houses spontaneously erupt daily? are people dying at extraordinary rates? Are there blueprints in poetry books?
I am only kidding. Great story, you Greek hipsters ;)

Robin said...

That was great. I know you threw that smoking one in there just to throw me (specifically) off the track and I fell for it. Damnit damnit damnit! That was my Jack Bauer impersonation again.