"Since I was a child, olive trees used to remind me of ancient crowns. It was a long time untyil 2004, when on the occasion of the Olympic Games, the Academy of Athens asked me to make two wedding wreaths out of olive branches. They wanted to expose them in the "In Praise of the Olive" exhibition which connected the olive tree to birth, marriage and death".

Succeeded in being acknowledged

Sevasti Bolanou's wreaths were placed in a show case with other objects from Benaki Museum and were exhibited, among other places, in Ancient Olympia and in the UN building in New York. This sensitive woman's work met great acknowledgment and this let her spread her wings in the artistic world. Before she came into her own, she worked as a secretary in large businesses for many years.

Prior to the Olympic Games she made art pieces with flowers and had exposed many of those, but after the Games she identified with the olive tree and started experimenting. She combined the olive tree with metal and other materials, which had been left in nature for years and aged.

Since her childhood, Sevasti viewed the olive as a very special tree. "I tried to guess the story hidden behind each olive tree, how it grew up, how hard it was for it to adapt, how much it was tortured. Olive trees live for many years and are part of our joy and sadness; they have the same wrinkles as our parents. It is a charming and difficult material, that can't be easily tamed. It has a ‘mind’ of its own and I feel that I'm not allowed to interfere in its character. I am forced to follow its shape and not the other way around. This makes me appreciate it a whole lot more".

Her family supports her

Sevasti Bolianou enjoys watching the affect her work has on people. She is almost convinced that an almost supernatural connection to olive trees is registered in the Greek DNA. An admirer of her work is her eight-year-old granddaughter, who gathers natural materials and gives them to her grandma so that she makes, as she says, beautiful paintings.

Sevasti is worth being admired, because even after her retirement, she still has a successful career that younger artists would envy. In Greek reality, it is not very usual for women with children and grandchildren to vindicate their creative goals and succeed, having their family's full support.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

Wonderful combination of olive with metals.

She uses nature's plain materials.

She emphasises on detail.

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