BACK IN ATHENS: The Icon Painter

Dimitris Zazanis, the icon painter

JUNE 18,2009

A couple of years ago my friend Anna Britt introduced me to this talented icon painter who she has been friends with for several years. I got interested in Dimitris Zazanis' icons after she had bought me one for a gift. So for the past couple of trips to Greece going for a visit to his workshop has been part of my visits to Athens.

Dimitris has a tiny shop on a ramshackle narrow street off the square of Monastiraki near the flea market and bazaar. He wasn't always located there. Anna Britt tells me that when she first met him, he had a much better shop on one of the more tourist-popular streets in Plaka. But, due to the hot real estate market in Athens some years ago he had to give up his shop and move to a more humble abode. Dimitris isn't into the posh touristic boutique style of shop. He works alone, a dedicate artist in a real workshop. His tiny space is crammed with the fruits of his labours: Icons of every size and religious subject, all hand-painted with loving care.

When Anna Britt and I visited him this trip, we sat and chatted awhile as we usually do. Dimitris speaks English and is in fact adept at several languages. He's an interesting, intelligent man. Despite health set-backs he runs his business on this shabby backwater street where few tourists would ever venture. Anna Britt and I encouraged him to get a website and advertise. He doesn't know about these things so we are thinking of setting one up for him, because he certainly does deserve publicity. His icons are beautiful works of art, not the mass-produced icons you see in tourist shops. I have two of them now and have bought icons for my children and my friends.

If you go to Athens, look for his humble little shop on this street, just off the main street that runs by Monastiraki. Aghias Theklas St. 13. The name of the shop is Zazanis Icon Shop.

After our visit to buy some icons, Anna Britt and I meandered around the old haunts. This street (below) is Vironos St. where I used to live at #14 Vironos all during the '80's. I always like to pass by and stop outside the gate. There are so many memories on this street!

Then we went over to Makgrianni to our favorite taverna and had something to eat and a cold Mythos beer (our favorite drink). It was good to be back in Athens and to have some days to spend with my girlfriends, wandering about all the old familiar places. On the weekend I'm going to Euboeia with my friends Dinaz and Andreas to visit the little village, Lala, where I used to live part-time and also to pay a visit to the cousins of our dear friend Graham who inherited his house in Stira after he unfortunately died. Five more days to catch up on news, memories and enjoy this city that I love so much!

RETRACING OLD FOOTSTEPS

I'm heading back to Athens on June 1 and I'm so excited because this is my second home. I first began visiting Greece in 1979, landing first in northern Greece, Macedonia. I was working on my Celtic novel at the time and was tracing Olwen's footsteps as well as doing research about my historical hero, Alexander the Great.

How did Olwen get to Greece from the Salisbury Plain in England? Well, she was kidnapped by a renegade chief's son after she had witnessed him murder his favored younger brother. He left the country with her and made his way across northern Europe. When he heard about the young King of Macedon who was recruiting men for his army to invade Asia Minor and kick the Persians out, he goes with other Celtic chieftains to offer his services. They were turned down by Alexander, because he thought them too barbarian. Olwen is rescued from her captor by Alexander when he comes across them in the forest while he's on a hunt. Thus began her life in Greece and my connection with Greece too.

Besides going back to visit my many friends there, I am celebrating my Big Birthday in Athens on June 6. We have called it The Assembly of 2009, because we are having the sunset picnic party on the Hill of the Nymphs. I had another birthday there two years ago and it has been the scene of many sunset picnics in the past.

The three Hills of the Muses, Pnyx and the Nymphs are the scene of several battles including Theseus against the Amazons. After the Persian wars the Hills were incorporated into the City which was encircled by the Themistoclean Walls and played a defensive role when Kimon and Pericles built the Phalerian Wall and Long Walls (mid 5th c) that connected Athens with it's harbors at Phaliron and Pireaus. Two important demes were developed, that of Melite and Koile. The Assembly met on the flat area of the Hill of the Nymphs and the Pnyx. Some of the famous statesmen and generals of ancient Athens had their homes there.

When I went to live in Athens in 1983 I first lived in Koukaki but the following summer I got a beautiful little flat in the basement of this house at #14 Vironos St. (Byron's St.) I spent several happy years living here, enjoying Kyria Dina's lovely courtyard and sharing space with my dear friend Roberto who lived in the little house out back. Every time I go back to Athens I pass by and look into the courtyard and touch the gate, with loving memories of those times and friends now gone. Kyria Dina's husband was unfortunately killed in a hit-and-run accident on a country road a few years ago, and my friend Roberto died of cancer. But this house will always hold special memories for me and I often think of it, and wish I was back there, snug in my little downstairs rooms where I was writing my novel and travel stories and enjoying the life.