“If you hadn’t given me poetry, O Lord”

What fascinates me most is how speech,

written or oral, literary or folk can become an occasion

for the creation of an artwork.

With egg tempera, inks, gold and silver leaves,

paintbrushes and dip pens, and with a predominant tool

the so-called “minuscule cursive” script,

the Greek handwriting of the Byzantine times,

I attempt to capture on the parchment

the rhythm of the words,

the color of the speech.

The source of inspiration for this particular scarf is the poem

“If you hadn’t given me poetry, O Lord”

by the great Laconian poet Nikiforos Vrettakos, 

whose poetic speech moves me deeply and floods me

with images, forms and shapes.

Leonidas Michalakos