‘Art Can Affect People’: Greek Artist’s Miniature Worlds Inspire Beauty and Kindness

September 30th, 2021

Awake Goy

With the harmonious combination of tiny pieces and materials, a Greek artist has been creating aesthetically pleasing miniature worlds enclosed in small boxes, frames, and watch cases.

From an early age, Gregory Grozos had a natural inclination for the arts, as his father was a graphic designer who also liked to paint in his free time. Following in the footsteps of his dad, he went on to study graphic design and earned a degree from Athens School of Fine Arts.

“There were many art books in the house that I would take off the bookcase and go through as a young child,” Grozos told The Epoch Times. “It was a great environment to start developing my aspiration to become an artist.”

Grozos says he is aware of the responsibility he shoulders in creating works that have the potential to impact the world, and “how art can affect people positively or negatively.” He said it is his faith in the Divine that leads him to envision whether his reasoning and purpose of creating a piece of art would make any change towards making our world a better place or a worse one.

Grozos, who began creating miniature worlds about a decade ago, comes up with his own themes and ideas that he classifies as “fantastical and imaginary.”

“Astronomers, alchemists, inventors, and airship commanders populate tiny workshops, building machines, and flying vehicles. In some of my other works, unicorns, fairies, and mythical beings inhabit magical landscapes,” Grozos explained.

Creating each dainty-looking treasure, according to Grozos, is a “learning process” that involves a lot of trial and error along with a never-ending process of self-development. Grozos says there is always a “trail of failures” that leads to every “bit of success.”

“Sometimes things do come out rather effortlessly, but many times, having things work out is a matter of persisting through difficulty and overcoming many obstacles,” he said.

To develop himself and his artistic production further, Grozos says the ancient spiritual practice of Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) became his “guide.” The practice comprises five gentle exercises along with moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The spiritual discipline, first introduced in China in 1992, is now practiced by over 100 million people around the world.

Grozos, who began practicing spiritual meditation 11 years ago, said that as he began to apply positive universal principles “to evaluate and approach” all aspects of his daily life, he experienced a “profound shift” in his way of thinking and living.

“I have learned that being a little kinder and patient is actually becoming more attuned to how the universe itself works and things tend to become more harmonious and turn out better,” he said.

With consistent practice, Grozos noticed that when he began to adjust his thoughts to a “more positive direction,” a lot of issues would naturally resolve in the process.

The “catalyst” to begin his work with miniature worlds, he said, came from the book “Zhuan Falun,” the main text of Falun Gong.

“After reading this book, I gained an understanding of how entire worlds exist on the level of microscopic particles and how even a grain of sand can contain an entire universe,” Grozos said. “This insight led me to develop the idea of creating a miniature world, populated with tiny people, buildings and machines, so small that a person can actually carry on him or herself.”

Grozos found this concept “very intriguing” and set about pursuing the materials and techniques needed to realize his dream of creating miniature worlds. He showcases and sells his exquisite work of art both at a physical store and on Etsy.

While Grozos strives to create pieces of art that reflect and incorporate the ideas of “beauty, creativity, and benevolence,” he has also seen how ideologies like communism and socialism have degenerated the world.

“These ideologies debase the human intellect, spirit, and value of human life, attempting to turn society into a giant machine where people become little more than robots performing functional roles,” he said.

“Living our life in this modern society has become not only a constant attempt to try and do better despite all everyday difficulties but also a struggle against this set of societal and political forces trying to pull us down to rob us of our happiness, creativity, and spiritual potential.”

Grozos believes the danger is more apparent in China, where all faiths, including Falun Gong, have become the target of suppression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The benevolent principles of the practice—truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—could not be tolerated by a materialist Marxist regime which operates by turning people against each other and uses corruption, lies, and hatred in order to oppress them,” he said.

In the last 22 years of persecution, millions of Falun Gong adherents have been detained, imprisoned, tortured, and lost their jobs. Witnessing such a crime against humanity, Grozos found it intolerable and had been working to raise more awareness of these “heinous crimes.”

Using the platform of art, Grozos tries to bring together the bad destructive elements with the positive ones and shows in an aesthetic way “how a man can make a moral choice between the two.”

“I believe in preserving and building upon a positive, artistic, philosophical, and moral culture that reflects who we are at our core as human beings,” Grozos said. “Our basic principles make us who we are and the aspiration to become better humans is a limitless journey that can open a world of wonder and beauty.”

Check out more of his artwork below: