“About 5 years ago my neighbour ran into my kitchen screaming that something had happened to her son. I didn’t understand what was going on so I followed her to the barn. When I entered the barn, her 13 year old son had hanged himself to a rope. From that moment everything slowed down. I felt like it was surreal and time had stopped. The sound of her scream is something that will be stuck in my memory for the rest of my life. When the ambulance arrived everything went terribly fast. When they took him away from her, I didn’t leave her side and helped arranging the funeral. After the funeral my world fell apart. Every time I came home and entered my door I was afraid I would find my own son hanging on a rope. At some point my fears started to control my mind. My son noticed my fears. I remember this one night my son came up to me and said. ‘Mum, don’t worry. I’m a fighter, I will never give up.’ ”

“When you are an artist people tend to think that you will perform for free because either way, you love what you do. In the beginning I didn’t want to refuse any offers, Even if that meant performing for free. At some point you have to start value your art, which is very difficult because how can you value something you love doing most in life.”

“I have my own theory on how the nature of a land influences the mentality of its people. I myself am from Greece but I have been living in The Netherlands since 2005. Since I lived in both countries I believe the economic crises has everything to do with the mentality of its people. For example, In Greece if you plant seed a beautiful flower will grow out of it without putting too much effort in it. The Greek’s actually had the time to sit down and think about the meaning of life. I also think that is why so many philosophers and great thinkers came from Greece. We never had to battle the nature like the Dutch. For centuries they fought against the sea and they managed to put half of the land dry. I think that’s where the hard working mentality comes from. Until this day the Dutch still fight nature on a daily basis. Rather if it’s rain or snow, it won’t scare them from going outside and ride their bikes to work.”

“You are lucky he is not covering his face. He is very picky on who gets to photograph him.”

“I try to teach my son that life is about give and take.”
“How do you teach him that?”
“Every week we put some items we don’t need any more on the bench. We leave them there for others to take home. In the beginning people only took stuff but after a while they started to bring things like books and toys to the bench for others to take.”