Cyprus Mail
A minute withLife & Style

A minute with George Gavriel Educator and visual artist

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Where do you live?
I was born and live in Kokkinotrimithia with my family

What did you have for breakfast?
Oat flakes with nuts

Describe your perfect day
The perfect day for me is very simple, after breakfast I’ll do a bit of gardening, watering the trees and flowers, then shut myself in my workshop and paint. If I get tired, I might go out for coffee. In the afternoon I’ll pick up the grandkids from day care, spend some time with them (or perhaps they’ll spend theirs with me). In the evening, my wife comes home from work and we’ll cook, eat, have coffee, talk for a while, then back to the workshop where I’ll go back to painting, listening to music, till I get tired and go to sleep.

Best book ever read?
The truth is that I haven’t read much in recent years, I can’t find the time, I have so much painting I want to do that there just isn’t enough time. However, at the moment I have beside me a book by my friend Christos Achniotis I Dili Meta (Cowards After). It’s a book that’s a source of inspiration for artists and I would very much like to paint a work depicting on the canvas the political lynching and murder of Savvas Menikos.

Best childhood memory?
My father comes from Argaka in Paphos. The relatives on my father’s side live in Argaka and Polis Chrysochou. For me, our visits back then to relatives, and our excursions to the sea, will remain indelible in my mind.

What is always in your fridge?
Fruit, usually.

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
My car radio is usually tuned to Astra radio, and I’m in tune with their musical choices which are usually alternative-folk songs.

What’s your spirit animal?
I never bothered with my spirit animal, nor do I believe in all that.

What are you most proud of?
I don’t think I take pride in anything. But, if I absolutely had to say that I’m proud of something, I would say my parents.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
As with books, so with cinema, in the past few years I don’t have much time to devote, even though I like it. A film that I watched and liked lately is The Island. I remember the scene where the monk throws the abbot’s boots and his bed into the fire as objects of the devil. Excellent movie with a lot of symbolism.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
I would love to meet Brecht. Of course, I can meet him every day through his works; his poetry, his plays, through his books. I am moved by the way he sees and analyses the world around him – but most importantly he does not just stop there, but proceeds to give solutions and answers to the issues of his time.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
I was born in 1959 and have lived a life full of incidents and socio-political ups and downs. I have no wish to travel to the past. Then again I wouldn’t want to go to the future either, I believe that difficult years are coming for our children, both in terms of climate change and in terms of the political systems of human government.

What is your greatest fear?
I don’t think anything scares me. I am concerned about many things that are going on in our time, but I cannot say that I feel fear about them.

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
I would tell him to work, and to try even harder to acquire knowledge and enjoy creativity.

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
Dishonesty

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
I would gather my family around me.

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