As a history buff, my paintings evoke for me a glorious past

 

As an artist, I want to feel in contact with that past. I take most of my inspiration from the history, mythology, and legends of ancient civilizations. They push me to paint. “Reviving” those long-gone magical worlds through my own reinterpretations defines my artistic journey.

Works created centuries ago speak to me

Anatolia’s 13th-century Seljuk tiles, 16th-century Persian miniature paintings, the marginalia found in medieval European religious manuscripts, and the icons of Byzantine and Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity are among the cultural production of the past that informs my art. I reshape these cultural legacies through my personal artistic filter with a narrative approach. Storytelling is an important attribute of my art.

Artists of the past guide me as well

Among the artists whose influence is apparent in my work are Turkish cartoonists Semih Balcıoğlu and Turhan Selçuk; Abidin Dino and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, famous Turkish artists who combined figuration with abstraction; and women who worked in traditional folk art, such as Nasra Simmeshindi of Mardin, Turkey, and Ukrainian Maria Primachenko.