Torch Painting

Emmy Kotoula (1965) was born in Thessaloniki, where she lives and works. During her studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, she decided to pursue her love for art and she started attending painting and sculpture classes in ateliers and art studios. Later her need for communicating through visual expression lead her to attend the School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During the same period she apprenticed to two renowned visual artists, deepening on the aniconic art. She has crafted book covers and many of her artworks are in private collections. Her artistic work is mainly influenced by abstract expressionists and by writers such as Kazantzakis ( the void of the abyss through which he thrives). Her approach to art is anthropocentric, psychographic and ontological. It is the essence of man's existential concerns. Hence the titles of her collections are abyss, endo, burning, etc. Her artworks are subject to the charm of archetypical natural materials (stones, sand, wood, seaweed, shells, etc.).These materials are glued and painted on the canvas with acrylics and eventually burned with a blowtorch. Her painting is spontaneous, instinctive and partly gestured. Her canvas through the stratification of materials acquires intense materiality. The artist believing in the catalytic and redeeming effect of art on the human soul, with her work aspires to give a boost from the despair of loss to the hope of rebirth, optimistically valuing the cycle of life.