This is my first post, so I thought I’d start with my artist’s statement. Here goes:
“My paintings are like a film or a book whose content you cannot correctly recall yet whose feeling you distinctly remember.
This is true for all three themes around which my work revolves: abstract, Turkish puppet theater and my autobiography.
I explore sociopolitical issues through two puppet characters from Turkish theater. Hacivat who if not always illiterate remains ignorant and has a predilection for get rich quick schemes, and Karagöz who mercilessly belittles him with his education.
As for my autobiographical works, I use historical events as a backdrop because whether or not we are direct participants they affect how we live.
I work in oils, acrylic, gouache, ink and with photographs. I might do a rough sketch but I prefer to go directly to the medium of my choice and work out my ideas. For me creating is an interactive process; the marks I make feed back. If what I’m doing no longer feels right I’ll discard. I sit and look at what I’m doing rather than impose preset ideas on my work.
When it feels right, that’s it.”
Until I was told that an artist’s statement should tell you more about my process than the manifesto it has become, I hated it. This seems better than giving your work pretentious attributes to please galleries, collectors and curators, who should know better.
Ah, yes – a photo of me?
