Chrysanne’s True Patriot Love

By Helen Dimaras

Years ago, at the first Nuit Blanche all-night art expo in Toronto, I found myself wandering toward the exhibit “One Garden One Night One Wish”. A light rain was falling, and I followed a large umbrella-wielding herd down the muddy, unlit path of the University of Toronto’s Philosopher’s Walk.

Just what could this spectacle be, I thought, that compelled this huge group of people to slip and slide their way down a muddy hill, in the middle of the night no less, their path further obscured by the eerie fog expelled by a smoke machine? I got my answer at the bottom of the hill, where I spotted a tree sparkling with tinsel and loaded with wishes hung on its branches like Christmas decorations. I tugged at a wish and read:

“I WISH…to live a long and healthy life…see the clouds as a cloud…touch the trees as a tree…I had a friend…wishes for others are more important than wishes for ourselves…support myself & write music…for inspiration…do what I do best…an end to homelessness, poverty and hunger…a smiling world…”

Like art is supposed to, this made me stop and think. I felt a sense of community with the group of strangers standing around the tree, reading wishes, and making wishes of their own.  The creative mind behind the wishing tree, Chrysanne Stathacos, is an accomplished Greek-American-Canadian artist with scores more public art projects under her belt. The exuberant and thoughtful artist is well known for her Wishing Tree and Wish Machine projects, which she was inspired to create after seeing a Hindu wishing tree in India. “On my second day in India I saw a wishing tree and it just knocked me out. It looked like artwork, and truly captured the human spirit.”

Chrysanne’s contribution to the 2011 Nuit Blanche is called “True Patriot Love”. The three words, borrowed from the Canadian national anthem, are transformed into a 3’x12’ floating haiku, adorned with flowers, and set upon a glimmering pond in the middle of the city. At the installation, visitors are asked to reflect on these words and express what they mean to them personally, all caught on video, thanks to sponsorship from Timothy’s Coffee.

“People are trying to find a voice beyond their politicians. You see this in Greece right now,” Chrysanne explains when asked about her inspiration for this work. “How do the words in your national anthem relate to your life? Are decisions made for you that you don’t necessarily agree with?”

Chrysanne plans to display a similar work in the USA, using words from the Star Spangled Banner. Another project will explore the connections between Greece and India. “They have both contributed to the foundation of the world’s history, mythology, philosophy and art,” she says.

Chrysanne’s own family has made major contributions to history, that of the Greek diaspora in North America. The maternal side of her family immigrated to Toronto from Tripoli in the early 1900s, where her grandfather ran Karrys Billiards on the city’s main avenue. An early snapshot of this arcade was included in an exhibit of the city’s historical photographs. Her paternal side relocated from the village of Longastra to the US, where her father, Constantine Stathacos, was the first baby born to Greek immigrants in Niagara Falls. Not only did this baby grow up to be a talented pianist, but his career in law led him to become a Supreme Court Justice of New York.

As a tribute to her Greek roots, Chrysanne created a video, combining footage of her then-86 year old dad playing the piano, with clips her Grandfather Stathacos had filmed in Greece decades earlier. Watching the video on YouTube, I find myself thinking even more about what True Patriot Love means to me.

For more information on Chrysanne Stathacos, visit her website.

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