American artist brings nature to bear
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Damaris Kremida
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 28, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL -Muralist Emily Sommers comes to Istanbul from Iowa to create and work alongside local artists. Her exhibition in Kadiköy in April will feature sculpture on canvas. Through community-based projects, she has traveled the world, leaving her signature on murals in five countries
For Emily Sommers, art is a celebration of life and nature. This April, The Art Studio in Kadiköy is hosting Sommers’ first collection of small-scale work produced in and inspired by Istanbul. A clay artist, muralist and biologist by training, the young artist brings nature to the canvas with a combination of acrylic and clay. Flowers, bark and dirt come to life before viewers’ eyes as the artist transports them outdoors.
"In a lot of respects, they’re sculptures," Sommers told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, "and they all have to do with nature."
An unassuming Iowan, Sommers, 28, has spent the last few months in Istanbul working on her pieces alongside Turkish women who meet at a community hobby and art space in Kadiköy every week. The women of all ages and art levels work on cross-stitching, decorative painting, decoupage, collage, painting and other crafts. The experience has proven invaluable, Sommers said, as it has helped her with her language learning on the one hand, but has also been her first real connection to Istanbul’s art world. "It’s a hobby class, and that’s where I started my connection to the art world," she said.
Admittedly the type of work these women do is not as articulate as that of trained artists, but through their shared enthusiasm for the arts and creativity, Sommers said she’s found a community and a way to communicate that goes deeper than her limited Turkish.
"When you’re in a place where you’re learning language and words, art enables you to share a part of yourself that language and words can’t express," said the artist.
She admitted that her style is very different than the glitzy, shiny and gold-infused work that her Turkish women friends create, but at the same time, she has not been unaffected by these elements. "It’s interesting to see how I’ve adopted that in my painting," she said.
Sommers said she had continuous contact with the outdoors and nature, something that she misses in the Istanbul cosmopolis. In many ways the lack of nature is what has inspired this collection, she said. In her work, she has tastefully incorporated some of the shiny finishes often seen in Turkish artisan work to deliver her study on the natural.
Celebrating art
Growing up in a Mennonite town in rural Iowa and working at her family’s home-style cooking restaurant, she said coming to Istanbul was a big change. But the opportunity to use her passion to serve communities in other countries was one she said she didn’t want to pass up.
During her university years, she worked and trained under a mural artist and later started her own business doing murals for cafes, homes, offices and churches. She described the work as "coming into a space and bringing it together."
Through community-based projects, Sommers has traveled to different corners of the world and now has murals in five countries, one of which is at Istanbul University’s Avcilar campus cultural center.
"I was excited to make a living from art. Back home but I had a strong desire to live in another country," she said. "I really believe that art can be used as a service to a community to people," she said. "So in viewing it more as a service and less as a way to make money, I looked for an opportunity to use it." After two years of working in Turkey making costumes, theater props and backdrops for a private drama group she went back to the United States to re-evaluate doing art work overseas. "I would have never said Turkey," she said, but after some time back in the United States, she said she realized how she missed Istanbul and the opportunities for "learning, doing and creating."
Coming from a conservative Mennonite background where traditionally there is not a lot of value put in the arts, Sommers said she has noticed similar attitudes in Turkey, although she noted that there is an abundant interest and love for arts here.
Connecting via art
With her first exhibition, Sommers said she hoped that she can find her place in Istanbul as a foreigner and artist living here. Sommers said that the Turkish art scene is very open to new ways of seeing and creating art making it easy for emerging artists to "jump in and do art". Yet even though people are excited about originality, it is not "celebrated" yet. "It’s been a challenge to get others to think outside their box," she said.
Sommers is excited about the opportunity to share her work through her first exhibition with friends and local artists. "I want to use it as an avenue to connect with others and as a way to share what I’m doing and discuss it with other people, gain insights and see where it goes next," she said.
In the coming months, Sommers said she hopes she can find ways to use art as a way to break down cultural barriers and collaborate with local artists to do a mural in Turkey.
"That’s exciting for me, to use it as a platform to build bridges between cultures and people," she said. "There are a lot of blank walls in Istanbul that I’d like to see painted."
Note: Exhibition opening: April 4 from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. through mid-May / The Art Studio, Bahariye Cad. Sokullu Sk. Amaç Apt. No. 6, Bahariye, Kadiköy / (0216) 449 9692
"In a lot of respects, they’re sculptures," Sommers told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, "and they all have to do with nature."
An unassuming Iowan, Sommers, 28, has spent the last few months in Istanbul working on her pieces alongside Turkish women who meet at a community hobby and art space in Kadiköy every week. The women of all ages and art levels work on cross-stitching, decorative painting, decoupage, collage, painting and other crafts. The experience has proven invaluable, Sommers said, as it has helped her with her language learning on the one hand, but has also been her first real connection to Istanbul’s art world. "It’s a hobby class, and that’s where I started my connection to the art world," she said.
Admittedly the type of work these women do is not as articulate as that of trained artists, but through their shared enthusiasm for the arts and creativity, Sommers said she’s found a community and a way to communicate that goes deeper than her limited Turkish.
"When you’re in a place where you’re learning language and words, art enables you to share a part of yourself that language and words can’t express," said the artist.
She admitted that her style is very different than the glitzy, shiny and gold-infused work that her Turkish women friends create, but at the same time, she has not been unaffected by these elements. "It’s interesting to see how I’ve adopted that in my painting," she said.
Sommers said she had continuous contact with the outdoors and nature, something that she misses in the Istanbul cosmopolis. In many ways the lack of nature is what has inspired this collection, she said. In her work, she has tastefully incorporated some of the shiny finishes often seen in Turkish artisan work to deliver her study on the natural.
Celebrating art
Growing up in a Mennonite town in rural Iowa and working at her family’s home-style cooking restaurant, she said coming to Istanbul was a big change. But the opportunity to use her passion to serve communities in other countries was one she said she didn’t want to pass up.
During her university years, she worked and trained under a mural artist and later started her own business doing murals for cafes, homes, offices and churches. She described the work as "coming into a space and bringing it together."
Through community-based projects, Sommers has traveled to different corners of the world and now has murals in five countries, one of which is at Istanbul University’s Avcilar campus cultural center.
"I was excited to make a living from art. Back home but I had a strong desire to live in another country," she said. "I really believe that art can be used as a service to a community to people," she said. "So in viewing it more as a service and less as a way to make money, I looked for an opportunity to use it." After two years of working in Turkey making costumes, theater props and backdrops for a private drama group she went back to the United States to re-evaluate doing art work overseas. "I would have never said Turkey," she said, but after some time back in the United States, she said she realized how she missed Istanbul and the opportunities for "learning, doing and creating."
Coming from a conservative Mennonite background where traditionally there is not a lot of value put in the arts, Sommers said she has noticed similar attitudes in Turkey, although she noted that there is an abundant interest and love for arts here.
Connecting via art
With her first exhibition, Sommers said she hoped that she can find her place in Istanbul as a foreigner and artist living here. Sommers said that the Turkish art scene is very open to new ways of seeing and creating art making it easy for emerging artists to "jump in and do art". Yet even though people are excited about originality, it is not "celebrated" yet. "It’s been a challenge to get others to think outside their box," she said.
Sommers is excited about the opportunity to share her work through her first exhibition with friends and local artists. "I want to use it as an avenue to connect with others and as a way to share what I’m doing and discuss it with other people, gain insights and see where it goes next," she said.
In the coming months, Sommers said she hopes she can find ways to use art as a way to break down cultural barriers and collaborate with local artists to do a mural in Turkey.
"That’s exciting for me, to use it as a platform to build bridges between cultures and people," she said. "There are a lot of blank walls in Istanbul that I’d like to see painted."
Note: Exhibition opening: April 4 from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. through mid-May / The Art Studio, Bahariye Cad. Sokullu Sk. Amaç Apt. No. 6, Bahariye, Kadiköy / (0216) 449 9692