“As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world” ((Virginia Woolf (Three Guineas, 1938)).

Most of us live in cities, big or small. Some live in villages. Few on islands. Antinea lives in the most bright and vibrant colours. She lives inside people, inside their hearts. She hugs them with her brushes and intoxicates their souls. Antinea Boletsis’s portraits are exactly that: enchanting. And she makes everyone that she puts in her paintings, enchanting too. Even those who look at them become enchanting. Because her paintings are full of feelings; they are doors to imaginary places.

She photographs everything and puts it on the canvas. Her camera though is different, as she takes pictures of our inner worlds, she throws some light on our moods. The people, the animals and the objects that exist in her paintings are new worlds, independent worlds, almost future worlds. But the artist is a current person. She cares about how she currently lives, what she feels right now. And her now is painted with pynk shades. She has set out on a journey into a female world, where even the cats are archpriests. She paints portraits of women, and she gets inspired by them. She sees herself through them. She becomes their guide, and they become her redemption. She learns from them, and they light up through her art. She dresses them with colour and they smile back at her.

After all, isn’t that what an artist must be?

An open dialogue, a continuous dialogue, a vibrant one. If yes, then Antinea and her art are the words we didn’t say, the world we haven’t lived in yet.