Two young students, rebels, activists, lovers, pose in front of the Polytechnic, the building in the heart of Athens that housed my art school

This is also where a tragic massacre of civilians occurred in 1973 heralding the beginning of the end, to the country’s military dictatorship.

After returning from living 8 years in Greece, my nostalgia was understandably at a high. I was missing the culture, my family and friends.So I made a series of paintings that represented some of the milestone experiences I had in Greece and reflected my day to day surroundings.

They were introverted in approach and labour intensive, as I didn’t want them to end. I felt solace in creating them and bringing my memories to life. I incorporated some of the skills I had acquired whilst working in an iconography guild (this was co-current with my fine art studies) and they were subversive in so far as I used Byzantine, religious, figurative techniques to depict everyday people and family members.

Emotionally these works were deeply satisfying and their inventiveness kept me motivated artistically.