SKETCHES

“As far as my painting is concerned, I am self-taught. I have never watched a painter at work. Yet I know that painters usually look at a model and then paint it. My own models, however, are the scenes I witnessed — even seventy years ago — which I still keep vividly alive in my memory. My sketches do not claim any artistic merit, but they speak for themselves. Together with the text and the descriptive captions, they offer the reader a true tour through things that no one will ever see again in real life. I believe that my sketches do not simply depict scenes — they portray situations. To the young, I can say that I come from another world, unknown to them, and I bring them things I have seen and lived. In many cases, I write about personal experiences. And I have the impression that such accounts would be immensely valuable if we possessed the memoirs of an ordinary person from Ancient Athens. What I have experienced as a simple man, I write down — and it is authentic, and in the future it will be worthwhile.
However, consequently, my stories often relate more to Western Crete, because that is where I experienced them. I believe that this book does not merely present images of life in those years — it presents life itself. ”

          K.I.G. (2008 – CRETAN FOLKLORE)