One of the perks of working under Dimitrios is that you benefit from the vision that he developed over decades of experience mastering his craft. He'll teach you how to see the same carving in a new way. Then he'll help you bust through your creative blocks and create a work of art that has the ability to surprise, in that the viewer can see something new with each viewing of it.
Rather than working in isolation to build your skillset, Bill Pavlak’s story illustrates how it’s the mentorship that counts. “Nowhere is this lack of feedback more debilitating than in the development of a keen critical mind and eye for assessing our own work,” he writes in his article on Fine Woodworking. He brought his finest piece of work to Dimitrios, who reworked it into something he would have never envisioned.“...I could now sense the difference between what I had considered good work and what my best work could be. This is one of the biggest lessons to learn in craft and it’s mostly likely to come with the help of a teacher.” Not only did Dimitrios show him new techniques he could apply in the future, he became a more ambitious carver as a result, revolutionizing his approach to the craft.