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By the time she began creating, back in 1973, Nadia Drakopoulou has been consistently serving the historic class of Crafting Arts, in which objects are born, rather than produced, thus inheriting unique attributes from their creator.
Energetic and inexhaustible, Nadia has gone a long way in these years. Without receiving any sort of education in this field, or enjoying the aide of any special tutors, but full of imagination, insistence, sensitivity, patience, always open to new ideas, asking here and there, trying and testing she discovered new techniques, working modes and ways of creation. Starting with copper she proceeded to handle - and eventually master - wood, glass, bronze and many other materials. Working with persistence, the self-taught creator gradually added special dexterities and experience to her natural charisma and learned to effortlessly and harmonically combine technique with aesthetics.
The result has been a nostalgic and magical world of lifeless living creations.
Searching in antique stores and flea markets all over the world, London, Salonika, Genoa, Athens, Milan, ships dismantling facilities, yards where pieces from old furniture and various decorative objects are thrown and any place where «the useless» frequently lie abandoned, she collects her materials: Old doors, trunks, handles, half-destroyed woodworks, mirrors, floor grills, bronze and wood objects, lights and other pieces from ships, all kinds of paraphernalia, beads, crystals, stones, glass - things probably nobody would bother even to look at. Then, in her caring hands, the old piece gradually not only regains its lost shining, but also takes something from her life giving affection.
«I have always been amazed by deterioration», says Nadia, «I love things that are finished to whom I long to give life again. I am moved to seek, to discover old things. I find them here and there, gather them to my place and cherish them as little treasures. When the time is right they shall prove useful, they will be reborn, maybe to decorate a trunk, a table, a lamp. They will become inseparable parts of an object that will be born from nothing; suddenly, life will return to them. My work can be viewed as a conversation with old objects and materials. I employ my imagination and compose new objects with them, giving them new life. From the moment I discover a new object, until I finish with it, nobody else touches it. I see every piece in very many ways, seeking to discover its secret dimensions and aspects. I never repeat something I have made before. I never have a concrete plan for my creations. I improvise on the course. I avoid following any modes of entrapping premeditation. I let the objects carry me away, in a sense to lead me where they want. From this freedom springs my inspiration. It is exactly this freedom that marks the starting line for creation».
Alone in her workshop, with the outmost dedication, good taste and abundant creative imagination, she personally handles every step of her work: Selection and combination of - frequently very disparate - elements to be used, design of form and structural parts and execution of all kinds of craftwork, scraping, screwing, bonding, electrical connections, decolorisation, embroideries, woodwork, welding, nailing, sculpture, weaving, bonding, varnishing, metallurgy, paintwork, bonding, to name a few. A unique object is then born through this total labor process, another child - amongst many - to the creator.
Nadia Drakopoulou has participated in four crafting arts exhibitions: Two in Athens, one in London and one in Moscow.
Her unique artifacts available for sale are presented in these web pages.
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