Owl, 2001

Until practically the end of the Fifties, Natalia Mela made works primarily on commission, as well as a series of busts that faithfully reproduced her lessons at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 1960 she abandoned the use of marble and stone and turned to metal, adopting at the same time a style freer and more abstract. Animals and birds, as well as mythological figures in dynamic poses, rendered schematically, but done with a roughly-worked surface with the later addition of pieces of metal to form linear constructions in space, were thus transformed into symbols of a natural demonic power. In her most recent work her interest has remained focused on figures from the animal kingdom, but her materials have been enriched. “Owl” is a characteristic example of her work these past few years and her turn to compact figures with the use of new materials. Static, with an intense look to them, eyes stressed and formed of two inset marbles and using angular contours, she brings to realization, exercising a contemporary eye, the ancient symbol of wisdom.