About Pavlos Jewelry Design

   Pavlos Diakoumakos' life, like his jewellery, has been characterised by an unresolved tension between opposing poles of attraction. From childhood until maturity, the artist has drawn his experiences and his inspiration from a variety of cultural settings and has succeeded in achieving a creative balance between opposites, while avoiding stereotypes.

   Born in Athens, he has his cultural roots in the Mani and in Asia Minor, where his origins lie. To his childhood memories of the neighbourhood of Metaxourgeio are added images of nature in the Mani as well as the poetry of Elytis and Ritsos. Two years of drawing under the Greek artist Anthony Apergis are succeeded by years of wandering around Europe. At the school of Fine Arts in former West Berlin, where he studied painting, his main sources of inspiration were German Expressionism, the Vienesse Secession and Bauhaus. His artistic and philosophical questing in art, poetry, music and Eastern philosophy take him to Milan, Paris, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where he broadens his academic education while maintaining his bohemian enthusiasm for roaming and for aesthetic experimenting.

   With time, jewellery becomes for Pavlos the artistic channel through which he can express his ideas with immediacy, reconciling opposing trends and influences, like the bohemian and the cosmopolitan element, East and West, yin and yang and finally sensuality and elevated thought. When he returns to Greece, jewellery absorbs all his creativity. After working with well-known jewellers, he creates his own business names Pegassus Jewelry Designed by Pavlos and devotes himself to making his unique creations.

   Presently, two collections of Pavlos' work have been shown to the public. The 'Golden Steps' collection was presented in 1999-2000 at Pegassus Jewellery in Xenofontos Street. The 'Golden Extension' collection was presented in 2001 at the Athens Art Hall (Aithousa Technis Athinon). The third collection, 'Golden Alchemy' is currently being prepared for presentation.

   The three collections differ from one another, yet are linked like a spiral which is constantly evolving and moving. Each collection is born of, and emerges from, the previous one, constituting a further expression, an unforeseen development of it and the only limits it knows are those of its creator's imagination. Each new collection expresses in various forms and symbols, and from a different viewpoint, the philosophy and aesthetic values of Pavlos who continues to be inspired both by modern women and by the traditions of ancient civilisations.

   The influences of the artist's questing in the visual arts and in particular the influences of German Expressionism are seen in the variety of the abstract shapes of his creations and in the use of colour in the stones, which adds to the jewellery a certain intensity, when such intensity is required. These explosions of form upset the harmony of the jewellery, creating surprises, awakening the sense of those who wear it. As well as the expressive intensity of geometry and colour, Pavlos breathes life into each piece with a romantic vision of highlighting the invisible facets of every woman's personality through his choice of shapes and materials.

   Each piece of Pavlos' jewellery is an inexhaustible microcosm from which emerges the life-giving energy of ancient symbols and natural rhythms. Timeless geometric shapes, like the triangle and the spiral lend movement and rhythm to the metal, transforming it into frozen music, which, with its silent harmony, expresses the power of life and love.