Our Story
How it all came together
Toni Atkinson fell in love with Greece the very first time she visited Corfu in 1984, when she was eighteen years old. But life took her in another direction and she didn’t return for 31 years. This time, she vowed to come back and within four years, and many visits in between, Toni settled on the island of Mykonos in the Cyclades.
Throughout her life she has lived in Australia, England, Monaco and Spain, but nowhere captured her heart the way Greece has.
“This is a magical and mythological land, where age old traditions and beliefs are embedded in the fabric of society and those that inhabit it. I really feel at home here, for the very first time in my life.”
Toni believes Greece is where she belongs and that the journey to get here was necessary for her to fully recognise this.
After her first return visit to Greece in 2015 the one thing that struck her was that she had never taken so many photographs during a holiday.
“I was in Santorini and my senses were singing. Art was everywhere, in nature, architecture, people, music and food. My sense of awareness and mindfulness was elevated like never before.”
Since moving to Mykonos, and exploring many remote and little-known areas of the island on foot, throughout the seasons, Toni’s love affair with capturing contrasting images of the island has blossomed.
“After discovering a tiny geological site rich in Mykonian history I felt compelled to photograph the granite and volcanic rocks resplendent with an assortment of minerals. These natural works of art radiate colour as the azure Aegean sea gently washes over them. This is where the idea for My Mykonos Eye took seed.”
There are many wonderfully creative and talented photographers on the island, all with their own special perspective. But Toni recognised her ‘eye’, or view of Mykonos, was a little more abstract, and she felt compelled to tell an alternate story of the famous island with her abstract photographs.
“Many of the mineral embedded and lichen covered rock images I’d captured reminded me of expressionist paintings so I printed one for my house. It had such an impact I got really excited about producing more. I started to dream about seeing my work on the walls of Mykonian villas and hotel rooms, and people’s homes all around the world. The colors are so respelendent, and are a direct reflection of the Cycladic landscape, I thought I could offer an alternative and luminous design option to bring the outside in.”
After researching the latest high-tech image printing and mounting options Toni began to produce her first limited edition collection ‘You Rock’ Cyclades.
