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Pantelis Mesissinos - Melissinos Art-The Poet Sandal Maker
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=== PANTELIS MELISSINOS - Melissinos Art -The Poet Sandal Maker ===
'''PANTELIS MELISSINOS''' (January 16th 1959) often referred to as "The Poet Sandal Maker to the Stars", due to his famous clientele - Owner of [https://ift.tt/2tkOiZB Melissinos Art -The Poet Sandal Maker].
[[File:Pantelis-melissinos-poet-sandal-maker.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos - [https://ift.tt/2tkOiZB Melissinos Art - The Poet Sandal Maker]]]
He is an alumnus of [[Parsons School of Design]] and well known throughout the world as a poet-artist & sandal maker. He runs a family business established, in 1920, by his grandfather Georgios Melissinos and makes bespoke leather sandals with a personal art touch. He is the son of [https://ift.tt/2RfHfJt Stavros Melissinos - The Poet Sandal Maker of Athens].
[[File:Pantelis Melissinos' Byzantine Collection.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos' Byzantine Collection]]
=== FAMOUS CLIENTELE ===
Pantelis Melissinos made sandals for [[Felipe VI of Spain]], at the request of his mother Queen [[Sophia of Spain]], in 2004, when Felipe was still a prince. At that time, he also made sandals for athletes, who participated in the [[2004 Athens Olympics]] and other notable visitors. He has also made sandals for American comedian [[Bob Saget]], iconic actress [[Sarah Jessica Parker]], comedienne [[Lily Tomlin]], US Vice President [[Joe Biden]]'s wife and daughter, British comedienne [[Dawn French]], actor, filmmaker and author [[Richard Ayoade]], CNN's famous presenter [[Richard Quest]], [[Satomi Ishihara]] -the Japanese star, [[Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg]], -well known Alpine skier, businessman and photographer, among many others.
[[File:Embellished sandals by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Embellished sandals by Pantelis Melissinos]]
=== HIS UNUSUAL SANDAL WORKSHOP ===
He runs an unusual sandal workshop with a [[baby grand piano]], in one corner, and his artworks standing on the floors or hanging from the walls and even the ceilings, while books of his poetry are on display, along with his sandals, leather accessories and photos of celebrities, who have visited him.
[[File:Samples from the Flower Collection & Pride Collection.jpg|thumb|Samples from the Flower Collection & Pride Collection]]
He sees his bespoke leather sandals as "individual poems", or art on people's feet and refuses to mass produce them or sell them over the internet.
=== PANTELIS MELISSINOS & THE MEDIA ===
In 2008, the [[New York Times]]' wrote an article about him: [https://ift.tt/2tVnXBg "'''Athens: Melissinos Art'''"] and in 2014, they featured him in a video documentary: [https://ift.tt/2spJGRx "'''Athens in 36 Hours'''"]. [[CNN]] featured him in two documentaries: [https://ift.tt/36TOGwG "'''Greek Sandal Maker Weathers Financial Storm'''"] and also: [https://ift.tt/2t8MfrA "'''In Athens, Having Fun is the Only Way to Survive'''"]. He is frequently featured in numerous major TV networks throughout the world, like [[Deutsche Welle]]'s Euromaxx, [[Channel 4]]'s "The [[Travel Man]]" with [[Richard Ayoade]], in Athens, as well as in publications, or printed magazines and newspapers and their online editions, websites and travel blogs.
=== FORMATIVE YEARS ===
He was born to the [[Cretan]] branch of the [[Melissenos|Melissinos]] family, and raised in [[Athens]], in an environment, where art, poetry and music played a major role in daily life. His father Stavros (son of Georgios Melissinos - founder of the famous footwear business) was the celebrated Poet Sandal Maker of Athens, who brought back - after 2.500 years, in the mid-50s- the trend of the ancient Greek leather sandals.
As a child, Pantelis Melissinos showed an aversion towards the school system and its restrictions on creativity and imagination. Memorizing prefabricated knowledge that he was not allowed to question was not to his liking.
[[File:Hand painted sandals, Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Hand painted sandals, Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos]]
From very early in his life, he turned to drawing, painting, music and story writing for solace. His mother Sophia (from a cosmopolitan and art loving background- niece of the famous French fashion designer [[Jean Desses]]) decided to ease his difficult time at school by encouraging him to express himself through drawing and painting. She bought him his first professional oil colors, brushes and canvases, when he was only eight years old and set him off on a trip into the artworld. His father used to buy him art books. He started studying classical piano at eleven, first at the National Conservatoire of Greece and later at the [[Athens Conservatoire]].
During high school, he was the best student in his art class, gaining the praises of his art teacher and most of the literature instructors, who saw him as a bad science-student but a good writer and an even better artist. His mind was set on becoming a painter and on taking over the family business, which would allow him to meet amazing people from around the world.
=== THE OLD SANDAL WORKSHOP ===
Every day, after school he used to walk to his father's old sandal workshop, which, back then, was still in Monastiraki. He loved learning the secrets of sandal making and as a teenager, he assisted his father during summer breaks from school.
The sandal workshop was an amazing meeting place for artists, poets, writers and various unconventional and fascinating characters. It was in that old family workshop that he first listened to intellectuals and famous Greek artists, like [[Yiannis Tsarouchis]], [[Michalis Katsaros]] Minos Argyrakis and countless others, talk about art, music, philosophy and poetry. Those philosophical discussions opened up new worlds of insight for him and helped him form his own ideas about life and art.
[[File:Hand painted Sandals from The Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos.tif|thumb|Hand painted Sandals from The Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos]]
[[File:Pantelis in his Athens Sandal & Art Atelier.jpg|thumb|Pantelis in his Athens Sandal & Art Atelier]]
=== ART STUDIES IN ATHENS & FLORENCE ===
After high school he studied classical drawing techniques, for two years, at an art atelier that prepared students for the [[Athens School of Fine Arts]] exams. But although the Athens School of Fine Arts was offering very serious technical training it was, at the same time, stuck on 19th century concepts and principles and not in touch with any contemporary art movements. So, he decided to move on. He went to [[Florence]]-Italy and stayed there for a few months. Then, he returned home and started preparations for studies in the US.
=== THE PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN YEARS ===
In 1980, after studying, for a few months, at [[Findlay College]], now Findlay University, he applied to [[Parsons School of Design]], where he was "triumphantly" accepted after showing his portfolio - his classical Greek training had finally paid off.
He spent some very productive and wonderful years at Parsons and received his BFA degree in Illustration, in 1985 and his MFA, in Painting, in 1987. During his MFA years, at Parsons he also wrote and staged, with his art colleagues, three plays.
[[File:Pantelis-red-and-white-art.jpg|thumb|Pantelis - red and white art]]
=== ARTISTIC DIRECTOR IN NYC===
He did his practical training, in New York City, working for the Greek Cultural Center, in [[Astoria, Queens]], as a set and costume designer and later as its Artistic Director.
=== RETURN TO ATHENS ===
After his practical training, he returned to Athens where he started showing his artworks regularly, in one-man or group shows. He also worked as a set and costume designer, mainly, for the Ancient Greek Theater scene. At the same time, he was helping his aging father with the sandal business.
=== HIS ART ===
[[File:Oedipus at the Crossroads by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Oedipus at the Crossroads by Pantelis Melissinos]]
His artworks are colorful and he often uses Greek mythology with some kind of a surreal twist. His subjects are usually classical or invented heroes and heroines and his art expression ranges from sketches and drawings to paintings on canvas, three-dimensional painted assemblages and sculptural objects.
[[File:Pantelis-Melissinos-reading-poetry.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos reading poetry]]
=== POEMS, COMEDIES & MUSIC ===
He translated his father's "Athenian Rubaiyat" into English, when he was 20 years old. His own poetry is usually narrative and philosophical and deals, like his paintings, with heroes or heroines or their everyday life equivalents. He also enjoys writing music and comedies. But in recent years poetry has won him over.
=== LIKE FRUITS ===
We wrinkle like fruits as time goes by;
We sparkle so briefly and then we die.
We fall like fruits from our family tree
And after that fall some feel so beaten
And no one stays unscratched or free
But we, like fruits, are always eaten
By hostile mouths of countless sizes;
We live in gardens full of surprises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGlAAbfCP7g
<small>''Poem from Pantelis Melissinos' book: "Oedipus in Bed and other poems", Athens 2017''</small>
=== THE LOVERS ===
1
As ether flickers and chimes
Its clock remodels the room,
Where shadows, lights and rhymes
Team up with bliss and gloom.
2
The lovers turned into flowers,
Red buds that sprang at dawn;
The late-night cheering hours
Departed, singing a song.
3
The sunrays color your hair
With tones of something unknown;
My love, I'm walking on air
And cry: "You are my own"!
4
As soon as night was gone,
The lovers turned into flowers
Of Love, whose magic song
Did bring to a halt the Hours.
5
Our Love just paced through infinity,
Our Love committed a crime,
And Love just gave divinity
To us who slaughtered time.
6
The lovers turned into flowers,
The lovers embraced the Dawn,
Two lovers tricked the Hours
With Love's deceitful song.
<small>''Poem from Pantelis Melissinos' book: "Oedipus in Bed and other poems", Athens 2017''</small>
=== 2019 RELOCATION - 2020 CENTENNIAL ===
During the Athens Olympics, in 2004, he and his father Stavros Melissinos were evicted from the old sandal workshop that his grandfather Georgios Melissinos had established, in 1920, in [[Monastiraki]]. They moved the workshop to the nearby [[Psirri]] area, where Pantelis Melissinos, officially, took over the business. In November 2019, the historic business was relocated to a self-owned property in the [[Acropolis Museum]] area, in [[Makrygianni]], just in time for its centennial.
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<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6f8I2MCPU&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0G-n2Th4jfSOqlxuao2VAsBCn-JvkyH6SWrgC1rxP75HkMW53PVewOTnY</ref>
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<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGlAAbfCP7g<ref></ref>
'''PANTELIS MELISSINOS''' (January 16th 1959) often referred to as "The Poet Sandal Maker to the Stars", due to his famous clientele - Owner of [https://ift.tt/2tkOiZB Melissinos Art -The Poet Sandal Maker].
[[File:Pantelis-melissinos-poet-sandal-maker.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos - [https://ift.tt/2tkOiZB Melissinos Art - The Poet Sandal Maker]]]
He is an alumnus of [[Parsons School of Design]] and well known throughout the world as a poet-artist & sandal maker. He runs a family business established, in 1920, by his grandfather Georgios Melissinos and makes bespoke leather sandals with a personal art touch. He is the son of [https://ift.tt/2RfHfJt Stavros Melissinos - The Poet Sandal Maker of Athens].
[[File:Pantelis Melissinos' Byzantine Collection.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos' Byzantine Collection]]
=== FAMOUS CLIENTELE ===
Pantelis Melissinos made sandals for [[Felipe VI of Spain]], at the request of his mother Queen [[Sophia of Spain]], in 2004, when Felipe was still a prince. At that time, he also made sandals for athletes, who participated in the [[2004 Athens Olympics]] and other notable visitors. He has also made sandals for American comedian [[Bob Saget]], iconic actress [[Sarah Jessica Parker]], comedienne [[Lily Tomlin]], US Vice President [[Joe Biden]]'s wife and daughter, British comedienne [[Dawn French]], actor, filmmaker and author [[Richard Ayoade]], CNN's famous presenter [[Richard Quest]], [[Satomi Ishihara]] -the Japanese star, [[Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg]], -well known Alpine skier, businessman and photographer, among many others.
[[File:Embellished sandals by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Embellished sandals by Pantelis Melissinos]]
=== HIS UNUSUAL SANDAL WORKSHOP ===
He runs an unusual sandal workshop with a [[baby grand piano]], in one corner, and his artworks standing on the floors or hanging from the walls and even the ceilings, while books of his poetry are on display, along with his sandals, leather accessories and photos of celebrities, who have visited him.
[[File:Samples from the Flower Collection & Pride Collection.jpg|thumb|Samples from the Flower Collection & Pride Collection]]
He sees his bespoke leather sandals as "individual poems", or art on people's feet and refuses to mass produce them or sell them over the internet.
=== PANTELIS MELISSINOS & THE MEDIA ===
In 2008, the [[New York Times]]' wrote an article about him: [https://ift.tt/2tVnXBg "'''Athens: Melissinos Art'''"] and in 2014, they featured him in a video documentary: [https://ift.tt/2spJGRx "'''Athens in 36 Hours'''"]. [[CNN]] featured him in two documentaries: [https://ift.tt/36TOGwG "'''Greek Sandal Maker Weathers Financial Storm'''"] and also: [https://ift.tt/2t8MfrA "'''In Athens, Having Fun is the Only Way to Survive'''"]. He is frequently featured in numerous major TV networks throughout the world, like [[Deutsche Welle]]'s Euromaxx, [[Channel 4]]'s "The [[Travel Man]]" with [[Richard Ayoade]], in Athens, as well as in publications, or printed magazines and newspapers and their online editions, websites and travel blogs.
=== FORMATIVE YEARS ===
He was born to the [[Cretan]] branch of the [[Melissenos|Melissinos]] family, and raised in [[Athens]], in an environment, where art, poetry and music played a major role in daily life. His father Stavros (son of Georgios Melissinos - founder of the famous footwear business) was the celebrated Poet Sandal Maker of Athens, who brought back - after 2.500 years, in the mid-50s- the trend of the ancient Greek leather sandals.
As a child, Pantelis Melissinos showed an aversion towards the school system and its restrictions on creativity and imagination. Memorizing prefabricated knowledge that he was not allowed to question was not to his liking.
[[File:Hand painted sandals, Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Hand painted sandals, Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos]]
From very early in his life, he turned to drawing, painting, music and story writing for solace. His mother Sophia (from a cosmopolitan and art loving background- niece of the famous French fashion designer [[Jean Desses]]) decided to ease his difficult time at school by encouraging him to express himself through drawing and painting. She bought him his first professional oil colors, brushes and canvases, when he was only eight years old and set him off on a trip into the artworld. His father used to buy him art books. He started studying classical piano at eleven, first at the National Conservatoire of Greece and later at the [[Athens Conservatoire]].
During high school, he was the best student in his art class, gaining the praises of his art teacher and most of the literature instructors, who saw him as a bad science-student but a good writer and an even better artist. His mind was set on becoming a painter and on taking over the family business, which would allow him to meet amazing people from around the world.
=== THE OLD SANDAL WORKSHOP ===
Every day, after school he used to walk to his father's old sandal workshop, which, back then, was still in Monastiraki. He loved learning the secrets of sandal making and as a teenager, he assisted his father during summer breaks from school.
The sandal workshop was an amazing meeting place for artists, poets, writers and various unconventional and fascinating characters. It was in that old family workshop that he first listened to intellectuals and famous Greek artists, like [[Yiannis Tsarouchis]], [[Michalis Katsaros]] Minos Argyrakis and countless others, talk about art, music, philosophy and poetry. Those philosophical discussions opened up new worlds of insight for him and helped him form his own ideas about life and art.
[[File:Hand painted Sandals from The Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos.tif|thumb|Hand painted Sandals from The Art On Your Feet Collection by Pantelis Melissinos]]
[[File:Pantelis in his Athens Sandal & Art Atelier.jpg|thumb|Pantelis in his Athens Sandal & Art Atelier]]
=== ART STUDIES IN ATHENS & FLORENCE ===
After high school he studied classical drawing techniques, for two years, at an art atelier that prepared students for the [[Athens School of Fine Arts]] exams. But although the Athens School of Fine Arts was offering very serious technical training it was, at the same time, stuck on 19th century concepts and principles and not in touch with any contemporary art movements. So, he decided to move on. He went to [[Florence]]-Italy and stayed there for a few months. Then, he returned home and started preparations for studies in the US.
=== THE PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN YEARS ===
In 1980, after studying, for a few months, at [[Findlay College]], now Findlay University, he applied to [[Parsons School of Design]], where he was "triumphantly" accepted after showing his portfolio - his classical Greek training had finally paid off.
He spent some very productive and wonderful years at Parsons and received his BFA degree in Illustration, in 1985 and his MFA, in Painting, in 1987. During his MFA years, at Parsons he also wrote and staged, with his art colleagues, three plays.
[[File:Pantelis-red-and-white-art.jpg|thumb|Pantelis - red and white art]]
=== ARTISTIC DIRECTOR IN NYC===
He did his practical training, in New York City, working for the Greek Cultural Center, in [[Astoria, Queens]], as a set and costume designer and later as its Artistic Director.
=== RETURN TO ATHENS ===
After his practical training, he returned to Athens where he started showing his artworks regularly, in one-man or group shows. He also worked as a set and costume designer, mainly, for the Ancient Greek Theater scene. At the same time, he was helping his aging father with the sandal business.
=== HIS ART ===
[[File:Oedipus at the Crossroads by Pantelis Melissinos.jpg|thumb|Oedipus at the Crossroads by Pantelis Melissinos]]
His artworks are colorful and he often uses Greek mythology with some kind of a surreal twist. His subjects are usually classical or invented heroes and heroines and his art expression ranges from sketches and drawings to paintings on canvas, three-dimensional painted assemblages and sculptural objects.
[[File:Pantelis-Melissinos-reading-poetry.jpg|thumb|Pantelis Melissinos reading poetry]]
=== POEMS, COMEDIES & MUSIC ===
He translated his father's "Athenian Rubaiyat" into English, when he was 20 years old. His own poetry is usually narrative and philosophical and deals, like his paintings, with heroes or heroines or their everyday life equivalents. He also enjoys writing music and comedies. But in recent years poetry has won him over.
=== LIKE FRUITS ===
We wrinkle like fruits as time goes by;
We sparkle so briefly and then we die.
We fall like fruits from our family tree
And after that fall some feel so beaten
And no one stays unscratched or free
But we, like fruits, are always eaten
By hostile mouths of countless sizes;
We live in gardens full of surprises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGlAAbfCP7g
<small>''Poem from Pantelis Melissinos' book: "Oedipus in Bed and other poems", Athens 2017''</small>
=== THE LOVERS ===
1
As ether flickers and chimes
Its clock remodels the room,
Where shadows, lights and rhymes
Team up with bliss and gloom.
2
The lovers turned into flowers,
Red buds that sprang at dawn;
The late-night cheering hours
Departed, singing a song.
3
The sunrays color your hair
With tones of something unknown;
My love, I'm walking on air
And cry: "You are my own"!
4
As soon as night was gone,
The lovers turned into flowers
Of Love, whose magic song
Did bring to a halt the Hours.
5
Our Love just paced through infinity,
Our Love committed a crime,
And Love just gave divinity
To us who slaughtered time.
6
The lovers turned into flowers,
The lovers embraced the Dawn,
Two lovers tricked the Hours
With Love's deceitful song.
<small>''Poem from Pantelis Melissinos' book: "Oedipus in Bed and other poems", Athens 2017''</small>
=== 2019 RELOCATION - 2020 CENTENNIAL ===
During the Athens Olympics, in 2004, he and his father Stavros Melissinos were evicted from the old sandal workshop that his grandfather Georgios Melissinos had established, in 1920, in [[Monastiraki]]. They moved the workshop to the nearby [[Psirri]] area, where Pantelis Melissinos, officially, took over the business. In November 2019, the historic business was relocated to a self-owned property in the [[Acropolis Museum]] area, in [[Makrygianni]], just in time for its centennial.
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<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6f8I2MCPU&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0G-n2Th4jfSOqlxuao2VAsBCn-JvkyH6SWrgC1rxP75HkMW53PVewOTnY</ref>
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January 14, 2020 at 11:46PM
