George Fragakis
Creator of Animartists

 

“My strength is my soul”. This phrase repeatedly plays in my head. I’m thinking that a soul that loves is a soul that knows no boundaries; but, instead, it travels, wanders, climbs, stumbles, smiles, and continuously evolves. In its path, it runs across images. Images followed by sounds, scents, flavours, and senses. And it does so, as if it seeks places to shelter, be heard, or interact with anything that generates its emotions. Emotions that desperately and endlessly look for a way to get out of their rut and dive into the unknown, as they yearn for the unpredictable… It is like Soul, in her effort to express herself, is always in the quest of Beauty; for art and soul walk the road of growth and enhancement hand in hand.

I’ve always had a profound interest in ‘humans’ in a sensitive and essential way. I’ve been looking for ways to ‘approach’ them, with honesty and love, and, as a result, I led myself to the world of Psychology to find them. I’ve also been seeking ways to bridge the notion of ‘soul’ with ‘art’, both of which had mobilized me since my formative years, always being in the core of my interest. This idea has long been running through my head, searching for a chance to ‘manifest’ itself, and be able to have something to ‘offer’. Everyone should feel free to take what suits him the most; yet, everything, as a whole, should give him a beautiful, light breathing in response. Besides, art is not what I see but what gets imprinted on me. Anything that my soul embraces with its own eyes, accepts or rejects; which then turns into an emotion, a part of the soul, or an experience.

This is how “ANIMARTISTS” came to life, as a need of mine at first. Now, it aspires to be embraced by all of us, as we become a great company of people who love contemplating art and life, in our own space. Its name couldn’t differ from its essence, its own stigma. “ANIMA” means ‘wind’ in Latin, while in ancient Greece the word ‘psyche’ was related to ‘breath’. It derives from the verb ‘psykhein’ which means ‘to breathe’. Thus, the soul is life itself, is this energy of life seeking its progression. The term ‘Psychology’ was absent at that time as it was coined by the Austrian doctors Freud, Adler, and Jung during the 19th century, referring to psychological illness, psychoses, psychiatry, psychotherapy, etc. In my view, the soul could be nothing but ANIMA; vivid and free to explore and develop. ARTISTS, on the other hand, are the creators of art, the agents of beauty and the things they envision and emit to other ethereal levels of cognition. That’s where they get inspired to give us their soul, and then create the form, the text, the sound, the feel, the taste… Now the soul got united with the seekers of beauty and our own space came to life. Well, ANIMARTISTS, we were born today, on the 10th of October, coincidentally the World Mental Health Day. It wasn’t intended or calculated. I guess sometimes coincidences happen for a reason, acting as a sign. It is the love and care for humans, the giving and solidarity to others, which need to reclaim their place in our hearts to help us face the coldness of our time.

On this important day, a space to explore culture got created, surfacing as a need in the form of an e-magazine. I deeply wish for it to enfold everyone’s points of view, host ideas that will promote inspiration, and guide each of us to the inner paths of self-knowledge by shedding light to the shadows lurking, well-hidden, somewhere inside us. Colleagues with professional unrest will be unfolding their thoughts and experiences. Comprehensible scientific articles, walks in artistic events, your needs and ideas, new creators, complicated and progressive ideas, experts and simple ‘explorers’; we are all valuable and want to meet with each other in order to give shape to something new and different. Our goal is to embrace, love, care for, honour and transubstantiate everything that comes up, easy or hard, beautiful or complicated. I want to wholeheartedly thank you in advance for your partaking in this dream of mine, and I really hope it is going to become yours as well.