CAMPAIGNING FOR BERNIE SANDERS AND HIS INFLUENCE ON MY WORK

CLIMATE CHANGE IS A PLANETARY CRISIS. WE'VE GOT TO ACT, AND WE HAVE TO ACT BOLDLY.

BERNIE SANDERS

If someone told me I would spend the evening of the 17th of May calling voters in Kentucky on behalf of a potential US president I don’t know if I would have believed them!! Not only was I up until the early hours making calls from Athens via The Bernie Sanders Call Campaign, but I would have gladly spent the entire week or two prior doing it had I received the ‘Make a Call’ email bulletin from Bernie any sooner! Having managed to persuade a few voters to change their vote – which was immensely satisfying, you can understand my anguish the next day when I saw that Bernie lost by a thousand odd votes. If I had been making calls for a fortnight before, who knows what the outcome would have been!? ;)

It’s not often that a political figure as inspirational as Bernie comes along. At a moment in time where people like me slowly lose faith in politicians and in political systems, glowing beacons of hope like Bernie come along every so often. The greatest challenge though, is for people to be ready for someone like him when he or she does happen. Sadly people just weren’t quite ready enough.

Why care about the US president? Because the outcome affects us all. Particularly with regards to two main policies: the environment and foreign policy. I almost thought it were impossible any more for a politician to step up and talk about the environment in the way that Bernie did. I had lost hope. But, we were close to potentially having a US president that would have cared about the environment and put it at the forefront of his agenda. At least for a moment that seemed possible, that renews hope as far as I’m concerned, all thanks to Bernie.

Whilst watching Bernie talk about these issues, who honestly touches me to the core with his candid, saintly manner, I was designing The Olympic Torch Lighting Costumes. I was told to have the concept of ‘Peace’ at the front of my mind whilst designing the costumes. So I thought, whilst traditionally the notion of peace has always been between men, why not consider the notion of peace between man and planet? Isn’t that equally topical? So I selected a colour scheme based on the Greek landscape, creating costumes that accentuate and act in harmony with the environment of Ancient Olympia and The Panathenaic Stadium. My costumes were therefore set to send a message of peace between man and the environment: A message which coincidentally was conveyed at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony. Coincidence? Or is the renewed awareness on the topic largely thanks to the Bernie Sanders campaign, which I am proud to have passionately been a part of.

THE OLYMPIC TORCH LIGHTING CEREMONY: 21ST OF APRIL, 2016