If you wonder about me

I am
a woman.  
Turkish 
and of the Orient.  

I live in
I was raised in the deep jungle by wild animals. 
(I have always wanted to say that) :)

Home.. I don’t know where home is. Still searching for it… 
A few years were spent in Gallipoli but many more in Istanbul where I have lived most of my life.
I have also lived in Bermuda. At the moment I alternate between London, Istanbul, Buenos Aires and Bangkok.

My age
I am thousands of year old. It may be the history of the lands I was born to or the accumulation of my past lives.. I carry memories, words, sounds, voices, scents, stories of different times and civizilations.

If I have to be realistic, kids who are younger than half of my age have the right to vote (in any country).

My story so far
Even though the sea has always been a part of it, I have spent my childhood in very green places so I feel more at home in forests. Watching the ever changing life in nature, how alive and harmonious nature is, how she continues to start all over again to create beauty day after day, in seasons, working miracles after disasters are simply amazing. I admire the nature’s strength to persevere, survive and produce.  

Hotelier by education, for the greater part of my life I have been an arts and cultural entrepreneur and producer. I have worked with prominent international artistes from different genres on leading stages like Sydney Opera House, BOZAR Brussels, Cleveland Museum of Art, Teatro Verdi, Sony Centre For The Performing Arts, and festivals including Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, International Edinburgh, Athens, Bangkok, Melbourne and Hong Kong festivals among many others.
I have produced two CDs. No, you cannot find them in sale anymore but you can ask me.

I am also a performer. I recite poetry of Mevlana, or Rumi as he is known in the West,  from 13. century on stage with Sufi music.

I have had a great journey so far. Interesting, exciting, adventurous, joyful but quite tough and rough at times, with lots of ups and downs. Someone said to me that the number and the sharpness of these define how rich a life has been. Perhaps.. 

I never cease to think that life is an amazing journey with everything in it and with all that will unfold with each day.

I believe in the goodness of the human heart and true love. Rare but this is how it is.. 
And that we are all connected by invisible ties, means and reasons as well as through all our other lives despite the time and distances.
We make our journeys together and through each other.
Yes, I especially like the portrait photography.  

Future
While helping others to realise their own projects and dreams, achieving their goals, I have found myself at a point where I needed to create, produce something myself.  It became almost unstoppable and unbearable as if  I was trying to contain a waterfall.  It seems that words are the strongest yet I see images when I look at people, around or just some images out of my imagination. I have a cinematographic mind.

In 2014 and 2015, I started to search ways to express these urges and took various courses at the University of Arts in London and mainly at its Central St. Martins where I have met remarkably unique and special tutors who have left indelible marks in my soul, in my life. I am deeply grateful to those people. Learning is so exciting. I would like to stay curious and interested, learn forever and feel the great joy in the process.

Photography… I find capturing and freezing a moment in time, or it says “writing with light” simply mesmerising. 
Isn’t that amazing that we can take a shot at the moment, make a shot of the moment, of the visual reality which is there or created, record, archive, preserve and leave it to time, to life which will exist  after us all.
I see the photographs I would like to take as visions on my mind so the ways going there engage my mind relentlessly.

I also got training to be a pro make up artist at College of Fashion of University of Arts in London and continued with the leading make up artist of Turkey; Oya Tolga. I see it as part of my creative process. I prefer natural photos of the nature only, the rest I like it “created” and “made.” Make up is incredibly transforming and helping to shape my vision.

I strongly believe that everyone must produce something one way or another and must do it with passion and dedication. 
As Rumi said “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.” 

I admire creativity. It impresses me to no end. The mind and soul are boundless..
There are many ways to create. It doesn’t matter what you create. Just make something.. Trying to create happiness, a mother’s baking a special cake for her kid are also creativity in my opinion.

Just continue celebrating life and being alive through all the happiness and sadnesses that come with it. And express yourself. Tell your own story, how you see the world.. Every person has a story, has something to say and they must not go without saying it..