Art Buff

(My Yia Yia’s tombstone, located in a cemetery on the outskirts of Champaign near my great grandparents’, Uncle Johnny’s, and Aunt Vi’s tombstones)

Ever since the death of my Uncle Johnny my sophomore year of college, I’ve worried about what would become of his side of the family’s Greek legacy and more specifically, what would become of the Trebellas family name. Uncle Johnny was the patriarch of the Greek side of my family and the last remaining child of my great grandparents. Because of the premature deaths of Yia Yia, my great aunt Vi, and the estrangement of my great aunt Mary, he was the only blood relative I knew from that generation.

When he passed away I understood that it became my responsibility to carry on our Greek heritage for the subsequent generations. Though I only speak a little Greek and didn’t grow up Orthodox, since Uncle Johnny’s death, I’ve worked to memorize my immigrant great grandparent’s life stories  and have delved much more seriously into Greek cooking, among other things. 

Still, the issue of our family name has always bothered me. The only relative I know of with the name Trebellas is my great aunt Artemis, Uncle Johnny’s wife. Once she’s gone, beyond a few distant and unreachable cousins, the name will go too. It’s been hard for me to know what to do to preserve it. I thought a bit about changing my last name or adding it as a second middle name, but both decisions seemed too drastic. Just a few weeks ago, I hit upon the idea of using it as a pseudonym when making art. The idea struck me as a bit pretentious at first, but talking it over with a few people, it began to seem like a more reasonable idea. After all, there’s a long traditions of actors, writers, and artists using professional names. Furthermore, my Uncle Stevie already uses Steven Trebellas as his pen name when he writes poetry.

The only thing that will be odd about this second name is that my art-making activities and non art-making activities are so intertwined. I’ll have to use one name when writing about art, curating it, etc. and another when making it. Still, despite the inevitable confusion, I’m feeling good about this decision. It puts me at ease about the future of the Trebellas name and gives me confidence that I can help carry it on. After all, whether or not I have kids, at least I’ll have some sort of legacy through art. Art is what lasts, as they say, I’m glad that through that, this name can too.