Growing up, senior Christos Timotheou always had an interest in art. He “relates his art to his life” and would “occasionally paint or draw some deeper themes.’” He creates his art with perspective and personal meaning, which isn’t normally shown on the surface, leaving the audience to interpret his art on their own.
With his bold and dark pieces, he has created a unique and different style. Most of his artwork is never planned out, and is instead based off of the vibes and colors he feels like experimenting with. Before working with paint, Timotheou worked with basic pens and pencils. He would, from time to time, create sculptures as well.
As a member of the IIDT program, Timotheou wasn’t able to take any art electives until his senior year. Years before he took her class, art teacher Donna Beekman admired his sculptures. “I told him ‘you have a talent and you have something different that I’ve never seen before.’”
When he began taking art classes, he gained an interest in working with paint, specifically acrylic, gouache, or watercolor. Beekman said, “It is great how experimental he is. It’s one of his strengths.”
His art has gathered attention from plenty of people in the NVOT community. Senior Katelyn Hartmann, a friend of Timotheou, said, “I realized that art can be done in different ways and is unique to each person.”
Timotheou is also seen as a great team player in his classes. Beekman said, “He is very good at helping his fellow classmates when reflecting on their work and giving suggestions. With his great personality, he works well with everyone and is kind to everyone.”
Like any other artist, he has gone through some challenges with his artwork in the public eye. Recently, someone vandalized one of his paintings by spitting on it. Timotheou said, “I don’t think people understand how devastating that was for me. Art isn’t only a lot of random time, it’s a lot of my time, and when someone literally spits on something as valuable as that, you really gotta think about what you must have done to deserve that, because that’s personal.” Despite the fear that it could happen again, he continues to put in the time and effort into his art.
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The skull is a perfect representation as to what his everyday artwork is. On a regular basis, Timotheou would draw skulls without a reference, only from his memory. He tends to add his own style to the skulls because he isn’t trying “to make an accurate depiction of anatomy.” In this piece, Timotheou used his stippling techniques with just a micro pen and ink to create this unique skull.
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After being inspired by Ecclesiastes 3:18-20, Timotheou created this artwork to illustrate how man and animals share the same morality and are from the same creation when returning to the Earth after death. It emphasizes the fleeting nature of life and the humility humans should feel about their place in the world. With the heiress, skull, and dog head, the animalistic instinct beneath skin and bone is portrayed.
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Though it seems like an ordinary temple, the true concept behind it is how our bodies are temples. The art ties into the fact that as humans, we need to have an understanding of the need to protect the gift of our body we’ve been given. Timotheou creates a lot of symbolism in this piece. The bubbles symbolize skin blemishes and the dresser symbolizes personal reflection.
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With his interest in exploring “humanity’s interaction with nature,” Timotheou wanted to encourage the audience to understand the beauty and anatomy of nature with the detailed dissected frog.
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Along with his paintings, Timotheou also creates digital art for his class. His designs are made to focus on his brand and his tag, XPISTOS, which is his name in Greek.
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