Εrietta Vordoni 

The visual artist and Ambassador for the LeSoleil Foundation, Ms Erietta Vordoni analyses the philosophy of Epicurus on the Garden and the blissfully happy life, through her lastex hibition "About Felicity" ("Peri eudemonias"). A philosophy which indeed remains particularly relevant nowadays, all the more given that modern psychologists refer to it during periods of transition, where values and principles are constantly doubted and overturned, reacting to the lack of emotion and moral values.

She was fortunate enough to be among the last students of the amazing painter and teacher, Yiannis Moralis, a pioneer in teaching art in Greece, given that this great artist provided the foundations for painting to release its full potential.

Next to him, she learned how to follow her instinct, to give over to the magic of colors and shapes, to be herself: an assertive woman with strong philosophical foundations, maintaining a romantic aspect; a person who wishes to change the world through her own perspective.

Later on, she found herself in Paris, thanks to an excellence scholarship from the Academy of Athens and it was Cremonini who boosted her morale declaring that she already is a painter. Their communication was purely intellectual.
Then Erietta met César, who was a great sculptor and a pioneer in his field, a true master of his art. He taught her the fundamentals of sculpture and helped her develop her potential to a completely new level.

In 1997, she took part in the innovative Salonde Montrouge,in Paris. Participating in it was prooving a difficult task, since there was a strict jury and it was an international event.

The fact that she received the Grand Prize in painting, early on in her career, at a very young age, when most of the painters competing were already full-fledged artists, took her by surprise to the point she could not believe it. Yet, she received that award, because ever since then, she sensed that things in this world could be uncertain, fragile, about to fall apart, or to be reborn.

She painted on superposed trans pareucies and metals, trying to "marry" the transparent word with the earthly; it was an original technique, which made people wonder and even doubt her, but in the end, she was accepted and awarded for her work.

"Nowadays, the world is faced with an extensive moral, cultural and economic crisis, compared to the one prevailing in the then known world, following the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC", says Erietta Vordoni decoding the reasoning behind the epicurean philosophy, which, in her opinion, was explored even in the field of modern psychoanalysis. "Intumultuous times, the philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) was teaching in a beautiful garden, symbolizing a paradise on earth, located at Kerameikos, in Athens.

Among other things, he taught that a person cannot experience eudemonia*, i.e. feel blissfully happy, unless being honest, principled and righteous and that the honest and principled person and therefore the righteous person is blissfully happy.

Reasonably enough, modern psychoanalysts refer to him in order to help us realign internally; to respect each other and respect Nature, which is largely devastated; to realize we are part of a greater whole; to establish strong friendships as a source of essential communication. Epicurus also advises us to eat healthily and to live a real hones life.

The philosopher incites us to do things that can lead us at a mental and physical level, to a healthy reality, from which unfortunately, we have deviated. Thus, Epicurus has always been relevant and it would be a good idea to learn from him."

The work of the well-known artist is entirely based on the teachings of the great philosopher and especially on the logic of the Garden.

"The enormous flowers and plants I paint, symbolize his garden and Nature in general, where humans turn small, so that I can demonstrate their respect towards it.

His words, in Ancient Greek, are repeated in different parts of my work.

The micro-cosmos becomes the mirror of the world, familiarizing us with the direct material existence of the universe.

Light, love, positive energy become the redemption, which I consider as a necessary guide, as a need to exist and to create.
Love is the sparkle, the driving force.

Quite often, my works include a naked woman.

Women give birth. It is only reasonable that, as a woman myself, I relate with them.
I paint them and wish that ethics, harmony, balance and sensitivity, which are almost vanished today, are born again; then again, it is not by chance that all those concepts are of female gender, at least in Greece.

In my works, I also frequently use eternal symbols, such as horses, a symbol of good luck; Caryatids symbolizing eternity; butterflies symbolizing the fragile and the transparency of the soul and trees symbolizing life. Even though the years pass by and different civilizations evolve, people still have the need of non-perishable symbols, which remain etched on our DNA.

To switch back to Epicurus, whose philosophy reflects on my work, I wish to incite the beholder, to recover her/ his inner and physical balance and serenity, as part of a greater whole; to respect Nature and the rules that govern it, as well as its complexity and endless beauty; to love and to find once more her/ his lost values.

Happiness is the positive energy, a state of harmony with ourselves and with the universe in general.
Precisely because, as previously mentioned, I believe that everything is uncertain and pending. We live at a pace that is unknown to our DNA. We run under vertiginous speed, we sleep in Paris and wake up in New York. We communicate through the internet and we forget that we also need a voice, a hug, a glance. We are asked to harmonize, to "marry" the contradictions and antitheses of our times in order to prevent our mental meltdown.

I use plexiglass, "solidified air" as the basis of my work, thus, in my works, in order to express the current situation on the cold, transparent Plexiglas surface, I symbolically "marry" the tenderness of velvet with the shiny hardness of metal, the memory of a lace with the special iridescent enamel, which multiplies the light.

On this surface, which is prepared in a different way every time, on this surface which is full of antithesis, a work of art is born through the oil paint I use on two or three different levels of transparency, thus the painting becomes tridimensional.

I want this new world, which is full of antithesis, to be harmonized so that we are also in harmony with our time and with the world in general.”

And she continues “I believe that this self-isolation, the ‘quarantine’ we are experiencing, will force us to deep dive into ourselves, to rethink our values, to get rid of anything pointless, to find the eternal truths once more.”

However, which could be the truth that Erietta discovered through her exhibitions around the world? What is the one thing that each and every one of us is looking for?

“Thanks to my exhibitions all over the world, I communicate with people, given that communication is one of the purposes of art; I learn from the different cultures and through human diversity I realize that, deep down, we are all the same”, says Erietta and recognizes that all of us seek to discover the truth which lies mostly inside us, in order to inject it to the reality outside of us.

“We are all looking for our personal exoneration, for love, for catharsis; and indeed when we find our inner balance, we also find happiness, we find an adequate place within the universe and we live together with our good spirit*, a spirit of eudemonia* or blissful happiness, just like the philosopher Epicurus teaches us.”

*In Ancient Greek, the word eudemonia* comprises of eu (good) and daimon (spirit, demon)