International artist Joni Zavitsanos was interviewed here on the Waynesburg University television station about her art exhibit at the university and how her work stems from a long family tradition.
She recently lectured at the school. Her show there, which includes works by both her and her late father, is called “My Father’s Daughter: Byzantine Art in the Modern World.” It will run through June 20. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Ms. Zavitsanos’ father, renowned Byzantine iconographer Diamantis Cassis, is the inspiration for her own Byzantine iconography, which she mixes with modern imagery. She said you say Byzantine art is written, rather than painted, because it is a visual writing of the gospels and their stories.
She told TV reporter Micah Leith that as a child she accompanied her father to his art studio. “I was a little girl, and he would put blank sheets of paper on the floor and colors and whatever and tell me to create whatever I wanted,” she recalled.
Ms. Zavitsanos said her father was not the first artist in her family. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were artistic too.
She is quite accomplished. Her work, mixing the traditional and the modern, has been shown in galleries internationally and she has taught in churches and at other universities.
See more about the exhibit at this blog post. For more information on the art show, contact Andrew Heisey, chairperson for the Department of Fine Arts and associate professor of art, at aheisey@waynesburg.edu or 724-852-3274.