About
"Saved"

    THE JOURNEY OF THE BOAT, “SAVED”    Wire Piece "Saved"

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Artwork Title: Saved

Artist: Kaliopi Matheakis

 

Medium: Knitted Galvanized Wire - The symbolism of the artistic creations by Kaliopi Matheakis begins with the unique process of knitting galvanized wire to form 3D Art against a canvas and wood backdrop. The developed method of knitted galvanized wire symbolically honors thousands of years of the ancestral Greek Heritage that inspires her artistic spirit.

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It memorializes Greek women, who in traditional ancestral times passed down from generation to generation the craft of knitting. Each generation embellished this essential skill used to make clothing, household necessities and fulfill agricultural needs illuminating it with artistic enhancements.

 

Ms. Matheakis taps into an embedded intrinsic historic skill and combines it with an essential material present at every Greek homestead, galvanized steel wire. Greek men were skilled at adapting galvanized steel wire to solve a variety of household, farm, fishing, and industrial repair and construction problems which they faced throughout the day. Their use of simple galvanized steel wire to repair hundreds of homestead, and industrial essentials borders on artistic creations.

 

The Story Of Saved

 

Saved is one of the earlier inspired works of Kaliopi Matheakis using her personally developed style of knitting with galvanized steel wire to create 3D art. She is inspired by her deep faith in Christianity and the influences of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Ms. Matheakis was engulfed by an internal emotional journey inspired by God as she worked on Saved.

 

Saved depicts a simple boat powered by the wind sailing the tumultuous seas as it carries its passengers on a journey. During the creation process Kaliopi became aware of the troubled journeys filled with emotional turbulence that women meet during their pregnancies and throughout the post-partum period.

 

While completing Saved, the journey of the boat’s passengers became clearer, the boat was carrying it passengers to safety while defying the angry sea. As her fingers diligently weaved the journey of the boat, her mental and spiritual life became focused on helping pregnant women and babies. Learning more about the risks and challenges faced by pregnant women, she thought about the options or lack of them as women struggled with the emotions of childbirth.

 

Ms. Kaliopi Matheakis learned for some women they see a hopelessness and lack of support which pushes them to choose abortion Saved represents the boat to the shores of safety during the emotional upheaval surrounding their journey in delivering a new life onto the shores of the world.

 

The Commitment to 40 Exhibitions

 

Before the final wire was knitted into the 3D depiction of a simple sailboat challenging the wrath of nature, Kaliopi Matheakis decided that the complete artwork, Saved, would undertake a journey of 40 exhibitions, representing the 40 weeks of a pregnancy.

 

At the end of the 40-exhibition journey, Ms. Matheakis is committed to auctioning the artwork, Saved, with the proceeds donated to a non-profit organization dedicated to easing the journey of pregnant women and babies and saving their lives.

 

Saved began its journey with exhibitions in Greece and New York and is now looking to add ports of call at inspirational exhibitions focusing on the power of women and their unique challenges.

Kaliopi Matheakis invites galleries to contact her to help complete the Journey of the Boat, Saved. During her voyage in creating Saved, she has become an enthusiastic advocate of working with and aiding pregnant women and babies. “Be part of saving a life! If you know any woman that needs emotional, mental or spiritual support during their pregnancies and beyond, be their boat. Please help pass the message to women "that all things are possible". If you are pregnant and you are facing turbulent seas, there is a boat named Saved in the form of community outreach and non-profits who are committed to plotting a safe course to shore.”

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  "Don’t give up.

 You are stronger than you think you are.

There is always a rainbow after a storm."

 

                                                                           

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