Story:

I made Virgin Mary with a technique including wood, gauze, plaster and afterwards you paint the rest.

She explains that this icon shows Virgin Mary and Christ, but it symbolises her bond with her kid, with whom, as she says, she grew up with. It’s about the love she has for him, about the fact that she will always protect him. Despite all that, she explains that when she made it she didn’t have this in mind. She was learning a technique similar to iconography. She completed it on 15 February 2003, as is written on it.

I’ve made other works using other techniques as well, but this item is my favourite. I keep it among my icons.

She tells us that she raised her son in a prison in Piraeus, where she was an detainee, until he turned three years old. In order to avoid transferring him to an institution and because there was no other family to raise him outside of prison, Stella, another detainee Eleni had met, offered to take him with her and raise him in Thessaloniki with her own family – and she did. When Eleni was released, she went to Thessaloniki to live with them. She used to work at night in clubs, selling flowers, while Stella was raising the kid at home. That was the point of reference.

My son is now 34 years old and our relationship is… “oedipal”. We grew up together, my son calls me, like, 10 times a day to ask me what I’m doing and where I am. He also feels the way I do.

Regarding religion, Eleni says she is very religious. She explains that this is the only thing she had to hold onto, as she grew up by herself and she didn’t have anything else to believe. She believes in something that helps her keep going, a source of strength.