ARTWORKS
The Sinistry
PANOS TSAGARIS
The Confessions Questionnaire
- Your name/nickname.
Panos Tsagaris.
- Current mood in one word.
Exhausted, fulfilled, stressed, blessed.
- What is your favourite dish?
French fries or ice cream.
- Tea or coffee?
Only and always green unsweetened iced tea.
- Favourite place you’ve travelled to and why?
These days, any place I travel with my wife and kids.
- Favourite movie?
Any movies of Andrei Tarkovsky.
- Favourite book or poem and why?
Too many to list here; the series of Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks (edited by Joseph Campbell) is truly a goldmine.
- Your Life Motto or favourite quote?
The first that comes to my mind is a little question from the first degree (Entered Apprentice) initiation in FreeMasonry:
“Why did you leave the West and travel East?”
“In search of Light.”
- What or who inspires you the most in life?
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Joseph Campbell (foundation).
- Three unique things about where you live?
I live in NY so there are more like three thousand things that inspire me here on a daily basis. Funny enough the things that I find inspiring in NY are often the same ones that bring me down or stress me out!
- A piece of advice you’d give to your younger self.
Some conflicts we have in our heads don’t always have to be resolved, and that’s ok.
- How do you escape a creative block?
For me, going back to what feels familiar, helps; repetition often leads to new and exciting outcomes.
- Do you have a favourite colour?
I believe it’s the colour black.
- Favourite art tool?
An inspiring book.
- Is your studio messy or tidy?
It varies. I am currently in the middle of a couple of deadlines so 70% messy – 30% tidy.
- Why did you become an artist?
I think it was a call/fate.
- What is the most challenging or exciting thing about being an artist?
Self motivation can be equally challenging and exciting.
- Craziest artistic experiment you've tried.
Art making is a wild process, the attempt to translate a thought, a feeling or an intuition, into something material/visual is indeed a crazy experiment.
- Describe your style in three words.
In only three words, that’s a bit limiting. Ok let me try it, in no particular order: harmonious, balanced, liberating.
- Dream collaboration (with someone dead or alive)
I think it would be really fun and inspiring to work on a project together with Aleister Crowley.
- If you could exhibit anywhere, where would it be?
Inside my two daughters’ magical minds.
CAMERA ROLL
SOUNDS AT THE STUDIO
In terms of my studio playlist, I don’t listen to music very often when I work in the studio. I mostly listen to podcasts, audio books or lectures/talks. I quite often visit the youtube channel of the Theosophical society which is full of informative lectures. The Joseph Campbell foundation Youtube channel is also full of some very inspiring talks. The Carl Jung Institute channel is another one I often go to.
Now when I feel nostalgic, I often listen to bands that helped me go through my teenage years. Growing up in Greece in the early 90s I felt somewhat isolated and trapped in an environment and a country that at the time felt and was very close minded and regional.The bands that were coming out from the big music centres of the time, such as NY, Seattle, LA, London provided me with the escape that I needed during those frustrated teenage years. My rejection of local & traditional Greek music at that age was an expression of rebellion against the overall conservative and suppressive mentality of my home country; which in my case climaxed when I turned 18, and decided to skip the mandatory military service and to escape Greece for good.