Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Papas.
Nicholas, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
After most of the first 50 plus years of my life being lived in Southwestern Pennsylvania and decades of adulthood as a professional artist producing work for churches, my wife and I find ourselves being Houstonians.
Seven years ago, we came here for true love’s sake; our first grandchild was born.
While continuing to do liturgical art in my Houston studios I, through relationships with new Houstonian friends, have also entered into a series of collaborative efforts. This new work I’ve dubbed “exo-liturgical.” Chief among my new catalytic Houstonian friends and collaborators is soundscape creator Jim John Marks.
This new exo-liturgical work is feeding my bread-and-butter liturgical work and vice versa. This is to say the move to Houston has been creatively fertile.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My primary work is to paint for churches (and most recently mosaics too). Mostly, Orthodox Christian ones. Although I’ve been doing this for about 37 years, I’m not sure I can look back and say that it was ever a tremendous conscience decision to be doing what I’m doing. Which is not to say that it has not afforded me the opportunity to offer the message(s) that I would want to offer in my work anyway. This is a lesson I’m realizing from my various new Houstonian collaborations. Even when, now, I find myself doing my “exo-liturgical” work, the messages welling up from within me are the same as the ones that come up more formally when working on commissions for churches. The messages are of Love, Truth, Freedom, Justice, Beauty… all the classics.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Learn from those who are successful.
Be great at what you do.
Being great at what you do implies having the love for what you’re doing.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work can be seen in over 50 Churches throughout the United States and over 120 private homes. Reproductions of my work can be found in over 40 countries on six of the seven continents.
But to make it easy for my fellow Houstonians, I’d simply recommend going to see my mural at Saint Arnold’s new restaurant.
Most anything you see on my social media can be purchased as a repro by emailing a request to npstudiogbg@gmail.com.
Look here for choices…
www.facebook.com/Nick.Papas.Studio
www.instagram.com/nicholas.studio
or this budding website…
www.saintdemetriuspress.com
Contact Info:
- Website: www.saintdemetriuspress.com
- Phone: 724 396 4675
- Email: npstudiogbg@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/nicholas.studio
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/Nick.Papas.Studio
Image Credit:
Nicholas P. Papas
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