Alexios Xenias – When being an artist is not enough

A sunny afternoon in early May. Alexios is overlooking the garden and the blue sea that is opening behind it. What a joy – this silence! This atmosphere! These colours!

A perfect surrounding  to start his work on a piece of marble that he had chosen carefully for today. It will be a “cross”. Yes, just a simple cross. Many different shapes have crossed his mind for quite a while, and he had opted for a very clear form. Alexios loves clear structures in his sculptures, knowing that clarity and simplicity of an artwork require the greatest concentration and compassion.
And it will happen now.  Alexios  cannot only see “his cross” clearly in front of his inner eye, he can also feel it under his hands, he can sense it how it will come out of the marble.

So, Alexios is getting started. He is preparing his outdoor workshop, putting all the necessary tools on his workbench. Being organized, concentration, visualisation …. and having the right tools, these are the ingredients for a successful artwork. Alexios is taking a deep breath, he closes his eyes, picks up the pencil and concentrates on finding the starting point to begin his sketch on the marble. The lines come up in a natural flaw, the pencil is just a prolongation of his mind and release his thoughts.
When Alexios is satisfied with the sketch, he is searching for the right tools to work the marble. Simplicity needs accuracy and a marble block does not excuse negligence and gross errors. Therefore, Alexios is choosing his tools very carefully before he is putting chisel and the hammer on the stone, chiselling out the first parts of the marble.

Alexios loves this work. It is a physical and mental challenge, and he is accepting it. This outdoor workshop, which is located near Faros on the famous Greek artist Vangelis Rinas is sharing with him is located near Faros on the Southern side of Ikaria, offers him all the comfort he needs to dive into his art.
And he is diving deep. After a little while, Alexios is hidden by a cloud of marble dust, only the outline of his breathing mask is still visible. The whole place is exploding of noise – brutally interrupting the infinite silence, that previously surrounded this area. And in the midst of these clouds Alexios juggles virtuously with his various tools: he swaps large hammers for small ones and skilfully uses different sizes of chisels.

Later, the dust is settling down, covering Alexios, the workbench, the tools and the grass around the workshop with a white blanket. In the upcoming silence the cross is shining brightly in Alexios’ hands. It is as he had imagined it, simple, but powerful. It still needs some polishing, but the main work is done.
Alexios is sighing. He feels deep happiness and contentment. Looks like, that he is not losing the capability and the joy to work with marble.

Being a sculptor is living his dream, and he had to take some detours to become one and to be an artist on Ikaria. On his way there, he was many things: decorator, entrepreneur, owner of a kick-boxing studio and so much more. But in the end: he reconnected with his family roots, as his father is from Ikaria.

Alexios grew up in Athens, where his parents were working as teachers. Looking back, Alexios’ childhood had been dominated by two loves: the love for art and the love for sports. This was no contradiction, because Alexios could combine them perfectly. He was curious and always on the move, playing joyfully in these two worlds.
When it comes to art, the story goes like this: In his childhood Alexios was often looked after by people, who introduced him to various artistic directions: his god mother was a painter, and his god father was a pianist, who introduced him to piano lessons. Alexis loved it and he became so good in playing that as a child he accompanied his god father to concerts in famous Athenian hotels.

And then there was the elderly gentleman – a painter and sculptor –  who lived opposite the family  and had his atelier in a basement flat. Alexios smiles, when he is remembering him. He spent hours there in these dusty rooms, where the old man introduced him with love and patience to the art of sign-painting and the production of cinema posters.
But his real “awakening to art” was carried out by his elderly brother. When Alexios was 12 years old, his brother took him to an exhibition at the Greek National Gallery, where famous art-pieces of the French sculptor August Rodin had been exposed. Here “The Thinker” has turned Alexios’ head and for days he experimented with clay in order to get to know, how make such a perfect sculpture happen.

When it comes to sports, Alexios was addicted to kick-boxing and handball. There’s no doubt about it: he trained with the same seriousness as he did with art. In the end, he made it onto the Greek national youth handball team and years later also onto the national kick boxing team.

But in the end, arts were in the winning team. Alexios loved his cosmos of different art and wanted to be part of it. He longed to enrol at the fine arts academy. But his wish was not supported by his family; he was told to rather learn something “proper” and not to have his “head in the clouds”. This was tough and as Alexios had not the means to find his own way into art, he subscribed to a technical school, and he trained to be become decorator. It was here that he learnt to draw and studied art history. It was a compromise, but at least he was still able to engage with art.

After finishing technical school with a degree in decoration and interior design, he worked as a decorator and photographer for a short time, but he didn’t like it.
As he still had the opinion of his parents on his back, that he should learn something “proper”, he decided to study computer science. He was fascinated by programming and experimenting with it. Somehow it was kind of related to arts, it needs precision, knowledge and dedication – and Alexios had it all. He created his own small company, and it developed nicely. And being self-employed finally gave him an opportunity to live on Ikaria.

It’s not that he wasn’t connected to Ikaria in the past, but it was an “on/off” relationship. Alexios was 16 years old, when he came to Ikaria for the first time. A school friend took him along and in that way, he could get to know to his family in Platani. Later he had a relationship with an Ikariotina and together they came to Ikaria a lot. It had been a good time: Alexios developed webpages, some money came in and he could spend a lot of time on the island. But when the relationship broke up, Alexios returned to Athens; he needed a fresh start. And finally ! – he enrolled at the school for “Fine and Applied Arts” at Florina to become a sculptor. He loved it, the studies gave him energy and knowledge and brought back his enthusiasm about art and life.

Alexios opted for Florina as this university was quite young and was associated with the idea of the ‘Bauhaus industrial design’ – something he really liked. Here Alexios completed his studies and now officially bears the title of ‘sculptor’! But in the meantime, his life had taken a new turn.
In Florina Alexios got to know to his wife, and they got a baby. It was a challenge: Alexios had to finish his studies and at the same time he had to provide for his little family and his sick father.
So, after finishing university Alexios could not become a full-time artist and but had to juggle between different jobs. The family returned to Athens, where Alexios could look after his father and could build on old contacts. He opened a kick-boxing studio and restarted computer programming. Nevertheless, as his heart was still beating for art – he is a SCULPTOR! –  and therefore, he was now  dividing his time between all the interests and obligations he had: his jobs, his family and his art. Whenever possible, Alexios subscribed for national art-contests, for not losing contact with his fellow artists and to be challenged by other sculptors and their ideas. It was tough, it was stressful, but somehow it worked. But the biggest challenge in those years back in Athens had been to accompany his cancer-stricken father to the end. After the grief had subsided, the family made the decision to move to Ikaria. They needed rest and wanted to reorient themselves.

The “onboarding” on the island was kind of smooth: Alexios’ wife found a job as a biomedical scientist at the hospital in Agios Kirikos, Ikaria, and after some time Alexios became the art teacher at the school for handicapped pupils (EEEEK) in Evdilos. The couple and their kids – now a son and a daughter – could settle and adjust to the rhythm of the island.

For Alexios the art lessons at school are now a challenge, but he is trying to team up with his colleagues to initiate new educational projects, because in the end: everything is art … and Alexios is determined to follow it, to live it. And he works with what he finds on the island. In his – rare – spare time, Alexios is either joining cultural projects of different associations in Agios Kirikos, or he is working on private commissions.

Somehow Alexios’ life has become calmer, but living on a remote island as an artist has its own special challenges. Alexios misses travelling, as journeys are supposed to open your mind and to learn new things. But he tries to feed this need by “travelling” through the internet, trying to find new ideas and to connect with other artists. AND nevertheless: Alexios considers himself lucky living on Ikaria, because it gave him the opportunity to meet Vangelis Rinas, the famous Greek sculptor who lives in his neighbourhood. They became good friends, supporting each other, with the opportunity  of working together on Vangelis’ land, here outside of Faros. Vangelis offers him the opportunity not only to feel as an artist, but to be the sculptor he always wanted to be.

In the end, after all the turmoil in his life, Alexios brings all the different parts of his life together … and on days like this, his experience may end up in a “simple cross”… but who knows, what is coming next. Alexios will carve it out the future, for sure. He has all the tools in his hands to do so.

(Photos and text @Birgit_Urban)