Interview with Neovi Vlassopoulou
1.Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.
Ever since I could hold a pencil I spent my time drawing, it was my safe place, my sanctuary and still is.
I am half Greek and half Scottish and both heritages play out a significant role within my art, especially the nature, he landscapes, the atmosphere and especially the spirits of mythology of each country.
I am a psychic Medium and have been since I was a child, which has an even bigger influence on my art!
It was when I got back in touch with my spiritual self during my Fine Art Honours studies at DJCAD art school that my art began to take on a whole new mending and became visionary artist.
Since then I have been selling and exhibiting my artwork worldwide, alongside my other profession as an alternative healer. Both of those aspects of myselfngo hand in hand, I channel when I paint and this gives me wisdom and the healing I need which I then carry forward and heal others with this pure Divine Energy from Spirit.
2. Describe what a normal day looks like.
The days vary and depend on my energy my cycle, the cycle of the moon and many things.
When I was living in Scotland I always was most creative during he night time. I would go into my studio and paint from 8pm until 7am sometimes approximately.
However having moved to Greece this has changed. Sometimes I wake up and since my studio is now in the top floor of my house, I see things within my art with those freshly woken up eyes and paint immediately.
Most of the time, I wake up, have my coffee or cacao on my roof and journal about my dreams (as they are normally always very vivid and carry a lot of symbolic meanings and prophecies).
Then I do some yoga/dance/exercise, have breakfast and then paint on my veranda under the gorgeous Greek sun.
Generally just after sunset I give myself an hour's break or so and give myself Reiki, then sometimes I continue to paint or I am channeling information for the next day.
As I am also a masseuse, yoga teacher and energy healer, if I have clients then my artistic practice is reserved for the evening time, when I am inspired by the moon and the waves glittering under the moonlight. Music is a very important part of my practice and the type of music I listen to influences the way I paint.
3. Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?
To sum it up, Divine Feminine Awakening is one of the main themes. Within the last few years I transitioned from being a landscape painter, to a visionary figurative painter. This is most definitely inspired from my deepest journey within myself, within my own womb and from extremely deep healing work I do within my soul.
Interestingly, I have to be the energy of each piece in order to paint it, so I have many works on the go at once as my energy merged from one energy to another.
Another theme is of Nature. My deep reverence and love for our beautiful Mother Nature and my gratitude for the wisdom and strength that she betsows upon me while I am in connection with her. I paint how the earth changes me, how she enlightens me and shows me deeper truths.
Other times it's purebrsw emotional expression, when life feels too difficult for anything else, my art is my saving grace, helping me to transmute what I sometimes don't even recognise on a conscious level yet, until I paint, and it makes the unconscious become conscious!
4. How does your art life impact other parts of your life?
As I previously mentioned, when I paint and make art, I am an open channel. I receive wisdom, clarity and healing for myself and very often for others. Sometimes words, poetry and songs come bursting out of me, without any conscious intention or thought, and I often share these words online, not knowing why but I know I need to, and then some person or people get in touch and say that this message was for them in that moment to help them process their current situation they felt troubed in. I feel truly blessed.
My art has also helped me understand myself and my relationships a lot more, it has helped me understand my true divine cosmos origin and why I am here, what my missing is and how I can help others within their own journeys too.
5. Could you share any difficulties and hardships you had to face in life and how or if you managed/overcame them?
There are literally far too many to list! Genuinely, my life has been a series of hardships and difficulties one after the other, ranging from extreme trauma, childhood sexual abuse which carried in throughout my life, to living and coping with narcissistic people through family, relationships which in some cases nearly ended my life.
Then my father dying and leaving me completely heartbroken. I have experienced plenty in this life, and also many great things!
What helped me get through then was to get back into my body and out of my head. Some days that looked like going for huge hikes and walks, sometimes dancing and screaming into the abyss for hours on end then crying. Other times it looked like just being slow and intentional, slow stretches, self-massage, gentle singing. We have to listen to the body and feel what it wants and what our capabilities are that day, as they can change on a daily basis.
Other times when I simply cannot force myself to get into my body it's pure cathartic expression through my art. This normally looks like abstract art, creating for the sake of expressing rather than trying to relay a vision or image onto a canvas, and this approach is so healing! Allowing the emotions to come out and not judging what it sounds like or what it looks like on the canvas. Often these works I have done have been the ones that have sold while the paint is still wet, as people feel the rawness and realness of it.
6. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.
I have had many great experiences so it's hard to say the best. One of the best was an artist in residency I did in Cambodia, in Siem Reap for Strange fruit&arts gallery.
I was there for 4 weeks and crested an exhibition worth of work, with 6 original oil paintings. The biggest one being 2.2 metres tall by 1.5 metres in width. I had just come out of my first Vipassana (10 day silent meditation course) so I was FULL of inspiration, clarity, focus, creativity bursting out of me and full of joy! It pushed me as I naturally wanted to paint spiritually but this was not what the gallery owner envisioned for his gallery. This was actually the best thing that could have happened as it pushed me to open myself wider, to crack myself right open and.to create from a place of rawness and depth rather than the beautiful visions I was having which was so healing! And I donated 50% of all profits to a local charity which was the only charity in Cambodia helping women who suffered from domestic violence, sexual abuse, healing them with childcare and therapy. This was the best part of it all! I'm getting goosebumps as I wrote this and tearing up. They came to my exhibition where we had an auction and to see the women's faces and the children's eyes light up in excitement and love every time a painting sold (and I sold all of them), knowing that my creativity was helping women in such dire circumstances who really needed help. This was probably the best experience of my life.
The worst-
There have also been a few. But from an artists point of view, I was used to selling originals and prints at every single exhibition I'd ever had since I was 19. Then in 2023 I had my first exhibition in Greece and I didn't sell one single original oil painting and it devastated me, as it felt like rejection. It felt like my soul portrayed on these canvases was being rejected and couldn't be appreciated or accepted. This was a huge one for me. I didn't exhibit again after this for 1.5 years due to the devastation. However in hindsight, I was not being rejected, I was just in the wrong place and the people loved my work but could not afford what I asked my work at. So again, although it was painful, I gained a lot from it.
7. Share your worst experience in the art world.
People expecting art for free. This for me is so disrespectful and shows nothing but ignorance. To create art takes the artist to dive deep within their soul, to pull out all the pain, the grief and Shane and create alchemy to transform it into something beautiful. This takes extreme guts and sensitivity, something that unfortunately many people in this world do not understand the value of, and is certainly not something to be given away for free, unless it's a desire from the artist. That's a different story altogether.
8. What practical advice can you give to fellow artists?
Don't let the judgment of others get you down. You will be rejected by many but that doesn't mean your work is not valuable. It just hasn't met the right eyes yet who appreciate it.
Don't undersell yourself, you are amazing and you do fantastic work that most people couldn't do, honour yourself for that, even if others don't yet.
Keep creating art, even if you have some time off it's ok, the creative juices take time to build back up again sometimes. Give yourself grace.
Move your body, get into nature and nourish your body well, this all helps creativity to flourish! When you take care of the body, your soul is more open and when the soul is open you can create more easily and for longer periods of time.
9. Is the artist life lonely? Please share your thoughts and experiences.
Yes and no. There is a fine line for artists on this topic. As we need isolation to create and for creativity to be born whoever we are also social beings and can get too stuck in our heads and bring creative or in our space. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to get out and hang out with some close friends or just go for a walk where other people will be there. Or if that feels like too much being in nature. There are spirits within nature that will comfort you.
Personally, I love the isolation of the artist’s life. For me it feels like I give myself full permission to act and be how I truly desire to be without judgement or restriction. The key is to try your best to keep the version of who you are when you create and share that with others when you socialize. This is the hardest but best part.
10. What are you working on at the moment and are there any upcoming events you would like to talk about?
Currently I am working on a new body of work, one from the inner child to the Divine Goddess and each painting has brought so much healing to me. There are a couple of exhibitions in the pipeline but still to be confirmed!
Something I'd love to talk about is a retreat I am hosting with a dear friend. Where we will be guiding people through a somatic and healing journey back to their creative self. I will be reducing all of the tools that have helped me to become the person and artist I am today. This retreat is in Syros, Greece from 9-13th May 2025 and I would love people who are residing this and feel inspired to come and learn the journey back to the soul and heart to create from the heart. As we will also be doing a Holistic Art Flow Workshop within this. Calling all the creatives who are seeker a deeper meaning to life or seek to get to know themselves better, this retreat is for you! You can check out our Instagram page at @soulflowretreat @neovivlass
Thank you for this opportunity to share my words, feelings and experiences! I truly hope it helps inspire others and feel like they are not alone in their processes and journeys.
IG: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nvw.art/