My journey as an artist has afforded me the unique opportunity to visit many places and to meet many kinds of people. I have often been surprised at how accepting these people were to me as an immigrant, a stranger, to a new country. At the same time I saw their craving hunger for the arts and a deep need for beauty in their lives. My paintings are a way to break down barriers be it language or culture. The universality of art has been so evident throughout my artistic career. With this book, I want to return some of that goodness by helping inspire the children in the arts. The youth of this world are our future and to them I dedicate this book. A culture of a people is rooted in their arts but today a new generation is being uprooted from this as drugs and the distractions of technology take over their lives. So I want this book to inspire and invigorate the young people of this world to use their imaginations. Planet Earth is truly a beautiful place and so are its people. And so with this book new destinies will be forged and I will have done my part for generations to come. - George Petridis