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  • Diatsenta Parissi:Greece Illustrator

My paintings are "built" following the colors, and the illustration must express this in a creative way, not just for guiding the reading, but in giving my view of the story through my art.

Diatsenta Parissi

Diatsenta Parissi was born in Piraeus, Greece in 1942 and graduated from the Vakalo Institute in Athens. There she studied Art History, Stage and Costume Design, as well as Graphic Design and traditional art techniques. Her teachers -- Tetsis, Moshidis, Mitaras, Katraki and the Vacalos -- had a great influence on her art. After she finished her studies, the "Vacalo" institute gave her a year's scholarship to continue her studies in drawing and color. She then worked in education and in the advertising field for a time, until her first illustrated book was published in 1979. It was a time when the children's book was flourishing in Greece. Since then, she has worked steadily as an illustrator of children's textbooks, traditional fairy tales, and picture books. During this time, she has also worked as a stage designer in children's television programs and designed and created puppet sets and handmade puppets.

Parissi uses drawing, watercolor, collage, and even traditional embroidery and computer-generated art in her illustrations, depending on what the text seems to need. Her use of color is unique, imbuing characters with emotion and movement and conveying the subtle atmosphere of the story. Perhaps her attention to layout, design, and movement is influenced by her work in puppet theater productions. Professor Anda Katsiki-Givalou notes: "the most important thing in Diatsenta Parissi's illustrations is the use of color… Her pictures have a beautiful, sensitive coloring that takes you inside the atmosphere of the book. You can see that in the expressions of the characters and the heroes, be they human or animals. Her heroes can 'move' and become alive."

Diatsenta Parissi has also been chosen to illustrate school anthologies by the Greek Ministry of Education and has illustrated many educational books and anthologies as well, with over 90 titles of all kinds to her credit currently. Today, she visits schools, showing students and teachers the art of illustration and puppetry. She has participated in exhibitions in Greece and abroad and is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts.

Selected Bibliography

Tis elias to dakri (The Tear of the Olive Tree) (2005) Athens: Piraeus Bank.
Posa lei i elia Posa akouei o lagos (Tales of the Olive Tree) By Galateia Grigoriadou-Soureli (2005) Athens: Patakis Editions.
O kirios Boo (Mr. Boo) By Tasoula Tsilimeni (2008) Athens: Dipticho.
I Yola me to Baloni (Yola with a Balloon) By Nannina Sakka-Nikolakopoulou (2009) Athens: Livanis.
I alfavíta ton louloudión (The Alphabet of Flowers) By Zoe Valassi (1997) Athens: Ellinika Grammata. [End Page 25]
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