Author: Maria Athanasiou
Located in: East Northport, NY
Submitted: October 23, 2014
Tell us a little about yourself. Maria Athanasiou author and illustrator for Christian picture books, was born in Greece and graduated from Veloudakis Fashion Institute in Athens.
Maria studied the Holy Art of Iconography. The artist is creating watercolor illustrations for her Christian books combining the Byzantine Iconographic techniques. Maria says, Painting Holy Icons is the greatest joy and a gift from God.
The author is blessed with three children, all grown and married, and ten beautiful grandchildren.
What was your motivation behind this project? I was motivated to write and illustrate the book Christ Is Risen with icons and Scriptures to make it easy for my grand children to understand and learn the story of the Passion and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing love for us.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope that whoever reads this book will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed illustrating the icons, doing the research, preparing everything together and writing it. I hope that they will learn about the most important story ever told and relive those amazing moments. I hope that it will bring them joy.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I felt very close to God.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? Glory to God for all things.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: The book Christ is Risen is the answer to the question of a little child of four or five years old, who asked me one Sunday morning in Church, while looking at the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, why is He there? What did He do and they put Him on the Cross?
It is the answer to all the little children, but also to people of all ages.
