A Dreamer’s Tale
The Dreamer
What was it that brought me here artistically?
I knew I had received a very good education during my university years. All my friends were doing similar things, but when we tried to do something different, we always faced a rule or a set of obstacles. I felt that I couldn’t express myself enough. Added to this was my extreme shyness, making me feel like a fish in an aquarium: I could see outside but couldn’t get out. Yet, many known artists had existed with their own identities, those great souls had found and reflected their essence to complete their evolution.
But what was I supposed to do? This had started to become my biggest problem, until I started taking an aesthetics class. In this class, I would find the answer to this question. The missing piece inside me was the meaning of the work, its essence, its philosophy. This started my search for meaning. Why had I come to this world? What was my purpose? Ultimately, where would I end up? When I started looking for answers to these questions, I would decide that there needed to be a story that would set me apart from everyone and that it should be my story. Because ART, in its broadest sense, was understood as the expression of creativity and imagination. I knew what my creativity and imagination could do, but the limits I set for myself and those set by the environment were hindering me and making me repeat the same things more than searching for meaning. Yet, art needed to be original and true to itself more than repetition to be art. I had to find out who I was to have my story. Who was I? Why was I here? What was the real purpose of my being here? These questions would lead me to an art approach that spreads from the individual to the general.
About 20 years ago, I had decided to start making small paintings. Yes, my works would first have to impact children. By making small paintings, I could affect them and write a new story. I could expect the future generations to remember and further advance the claim. These small works’ big dream would lead me to exhibit at AKM today.
As the artwork got smaller, the detail would decrease and it would be stylized. I decided not to do it that way; in fact, I would draw down to the full details. And so it happened. That is, as it shrunk, the details would not diminish; on the contrary, we could see the details of large works fully. Thus, I began my initial work. After hundreds of unsuccessful attempts, I began to progress and started producing works with many materials and types of paint.
We all come to this world with different fingerprints, and even siblings do not have the same fingerprints. How could I be happy doing the same things as everyone else? It’s as if we are in a system taught to fly but not to take flight. I knew I didn’t come to this world to do the same things as everyone else; I had started a new and untested story. I think some people come to this world as guides and lights and try to enlighten humanity. I see it as my duty to be like a light and to always provoke thought.
Could everything we see be as it seems? Or might there be another story behind it? Could there be many unknowns behind what we see here? My small but actually very large works consist of many unknowns.
There is a saying: LESS IS MORE. Yes, a great saying! Less is indeed more. To make something simple, that is, less, is the hardest thing. If ornamentation is poverty, then simplicity is richness. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” said DA VINCI. I started writing this great story to create much from little. My works were very small, but for those who knew how to look, they could be carrying the secrets of the universe like the structure of a cell, holding the great secrets of art within.
Was I making my paintings small or had paintings up to this time been made large? I believe my exhibition at the palace will be a great exhibition of awareness and questioning. Magnifiers will make us feel how much we miss the details of life and whether our eyes help us see or prevent us from seeing. Are the things we see real? Or are they just what should appear?
I think I know very well why I came to this world. To strive for others and to give of yourself seems to be the essence of life. I know all negativity can be overcome by love. Darkness is the absence of light; fear, too, is the absence of love.
I know I came to be a light in the darkness. I hope that what I have done and will do will successfully light the darkness and provoke thought?