Yanis Zagorianakos
Yanis Zagorianakos (YZagor) is a self-taught full time craftsman and painter. He has a BSC in Industrial Chemistry and Design from The City University London, making him an artist with a highly developed scientific interest and an inquisitive approach. In his work and in life, he has failed many times for different reasons. He considers this his main source of education.
Born in Athens, he grew up between Athens, Johannesburg and London. He moved permanently to London at the age of 17, where he first studied and then worked as a Project Scientist & Designer carrying out research. After 15 years he moved back to Athens, gave up working as a scientist and started travelling to India, where by chance he got introduced to Arts & Crafts. For the next 10 years he regularly visited India and took seminars in various crafts and numerous workshops in painting in London and Athens while working as a full time artist & craftsman. In 1997 he created his first brand of handcrafts “kuenta”, which he ran until 2012. From 2008-20012, together with marina, his partner in life and work, they organized and ran The Booze Market at Booze Cooperativa in Athens, a physical market for crafters and artists to sell their creations, and its online version The Crafts Market. He now lives between the islands of Aegina & Amorgos.
Yanis and Marina have jointly created The Cool Projects, their umbrella company under which many projects have been created. Among them: Aegina Retreats, Vedic Art Greece www.vedicartgreece.com, The Grapevine House www.throughthegrapevinehouse.com
To see his work, visit www.yzagor.co.uk
At Aegina Retreats, Yanis runs various workshops & retreats. They are based on 3 pillars, Science, Art & Spirituality. They deal with the creative process but with slightly different approaches, offering a road map to flowing creativity, concentrating much more on the journey than the destination. By science we broadly mean the intellect, knowledge or technique. By Art, we refer to the imagination, dreams, memory and even the subconscious. By Spirituality, we approach the open sea of possibilities, the infinite source of wisdom.
His courses cover all 3 pillars but in different degrees. They can be booked individually or combined at discounted price upon request. We also offer custom dates upon request as long as it is 7 days or more.
Yanis is also a Certified Vedic Art Teacher.
Who Can Participate?
All workshops are open to all. These courses will not teach you how to become a painter or an artist in a week. They concentrate on creating the space, an empty undefined, safe, space for the creative process to flow with no concern about the outcome. They offer alternative methods to approach the creative flow based on different balances between science, art and spirituality.
The aim, if ther is one, is to realize that the process is a state of mind or a way of being or seeing more than it is about any kind of skill*. It is not about any method or specific outcome, it is about the way we connect with our surroundings, the way to be in a creative flow, away from preconceptions, and become free to express.
*Skill is very important for anyone wishing to express themselves in a meaningful and complete way and in no way do we mean that it is not important in art or life. It is just that in these workshops, skill can wait until the need arises.
In space, there is no left or right, no up or down. Can we open our perception to this?
What you need to Participate?
Willing to learn.
Willing to maintain an open mind away from whatever we all know.
Willing to change and adapt.
Willing to receive, accept and share, open to connect.
Willing to focus and try.
Willing to fail.
Willing to keep trying.
