THE APRICOT SERIES
THE FRUIT OF A BRIGHT SUMMER DAY
Upon the decision of opening a space (this journal) to share the chapters of my journey as an artist, I felt called to reflect back to how all my recent endeavours have truly taken shape. Where did it all really begin? What part of it has been inside of me since the start?
Art has been in my life since the start. As a kid, drawing and hiding under tables to create my inner world had been a way to heal from within and to feel safe. Later in my life, it continued to be a practice of expressing what was locked inside and needed to come out, from spraying my room with graffiti (without permission) to creating the angriest collages, to doodling all over my school books. Tuning into expression, even as an introverted, sensitive teenager - has always been my form of healing.
One day, as I found myself in design studies - during design classes my doodles were noticed, and I was called to transfer them to a friend’s bedroom wall. One project then led to the next, and making murals or creating art became an occasional occupation on the side of my studies and later on the side of my path as a freelancer. I hadn’t really chosen to pursue my art as a job - I was not mature enough to do so. The true meaning in my art hadn’t yet “revealed” itself to me, therefore I did not yet believe in it. So, it was always something that I was doing on the side. Design was my main occupation. For years, I might have called myself a designer, so it never made sense to ever really call myself an artist. It didn’t really matter then.
A few years later, after a life of working and travelling around the world - my love and I were craving grounding. Our long standing connection to the island of Crete and a craving to connect with my roots led us to move there. As we were looking for our home, I experienced a reconnection to a creative energy that was long hidden within me, as if it had been dormant over the winter.
IT WAS A DIFFERENT SORT OF CREATIVE ENERGY. I HAD BEEN CREATING FOR A LONG TIME IN ORDER TO EXPRESS MYSELF, IN THE VEHICLES THAT I HAD CREATED, BUT AT THAT MOMENT I FELT MY INTUITION TRULY ACTIVATE ITSELF AND LEAD ME TO SOMETHING UNEXPECTED. I FELT CALLED TO SYMBOLICALLY REPRESENT MY CONNECTION TO THE PLACE I WAS IN.
We had just returned to Greece from our travels in Japan, where I had purchased some tubes of paint. One of the colors I had brought with me was called “Apricot”. When we were in Japan, I had experimented with a lot of different paints and materials, but this one particularly stuck with me. And it became the essential color to birth a collection of paintings that I called “The Apricot Series”.
“Apricot Series” was my first series of paintings that I purposely decided to sign with my artist name: Linda Pappa.
That transformational time led me to kindle my inner artist in a completely new, and more mature way. To break through, to make things tangible and real. This body of work which is still so dear to me truly reflects my connection to this island, which I believe spoke to me so deeply more than once. Like the resurgence of a delicious summer apricot, this work reflects warmth, abundance, finding connection to intuition through this present time and place.
