1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award | Gallery Ring | Holiday Advent Show
A moment of recognition and reflection — The Nutcracker’s Muse receives the 1st Place Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring’s Holiday Advent Show 2025, marking a meaningful milestone in an ongoing artistic journey.
A beautiful closing to the year
I am deeply honored to share that The Nutcracker’s Muse has been awarded 1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring’s Holiday Advent Show 2025, following its selection as the Official Artwork for December 24.
This recognition marks a meaningful moment within my ongoing artistic journey. The Holiday Advent Show celebrates creative expression through a curated, international platform, and I am grateful for the thoughtful way this work was received and presented.
The Nutcracker’s Muse reflects an inner landscape of memory, ritual, and quiet symbolism — a meditation on winter, reflection, and the unseen narratives that shape us. The piece belongs to my ongoing exploration of seasonal mythologies, where emotion and symbolism intertwine to form a visual language of stillness and depth.
I am thankful to Gallery Ring for the opportunity to be part of this inspiring initiative and for their continued support of artists worldwide.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist | Curator | Essayist | Fashion & Jewelry Designer
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award | Gallery Ring | December 2025
The Nutcracker’s Muse, part of The Seasons – Special Edition, receives the 1st Place Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring. A contemplative winter artwork exploring memory, symbolism, and inner reflection.
I am deeply honored to receive the 1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring – The Holiday Advent Show for my artwork “The Nutcracker’s Muse.”
December is especially meaningful to me. A month woven with memories, dreams, hopes, plans, goals, and lived moments. It carries the emotional weight of reflection and renewal—of looking back while quietly envisioning what lies ahead.
The Nutcracker’s Muse is my winter artistic creation from “The Seasons – Special Edition”, a collection that explores each season as a living mythos—a space where personal memory and cultural ritual converge. In this work, winter is not presented merely as a time of cold and stillness, but as an interior landscape, where imagination, nostalgia, and symbolism quietly commune.
Here, I reinterpret the iconic Nutcracker figure not as the central hero of the familiar play, but as a guardian spirit. An emblem of vigilance, tradition, and childhood wonder, poised above the mind of his muse. The central figure, serene yet intensely present, embodies the contemplative nature of the season. Her face becomes a vessel of quiet storytelling: ornamental glasses shaped as porcelain and an owl invite the viewer to look beyond surface beauty into layered inner worlds. The porcelain speaks to the past and inherited memory, while the owl symbolizes wisdom, inner strength, protection, and guidance.
Surrounding her is a constellation of winter’s symbolic language: framed ornaments, golden bells, mistletoe, and heirloom-like decorations that hover between memory and dream. These elements echo the cherished objects that resurface during winter rituals—tokens revisited year after year, each holding fragments of emotional history.
For me, winter is a season of introspection. Its stillness allows intuition to rise, offering space for the stories we carry from childhood to resurface and gently reshape themselves. The Nutcracker’s Muse reflects this inward journey—honoring the delicate interplay between remembrance and reinvention, and the quiet magic that lives in the spaces between light and shadow.
Grateful.
With this artwork, I wish you Happy Holidays filled with health and light.
With Gratitude
My heartfelt thanks to the Gallery Ring team for their vision, professionalism, and continued dedication to supporting artists worldwide. Being recognized within such an inspiring international artistic community is truly meaningful, and I am grateful for the care and intention behind The Holiday Advent Show.
This award marks a moment of reflection and affirmation—one that I carry forward with deep appreciation.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist | Curator | Essayist | Fashion & Jewelry Designer
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.