1. Tell us more about your background and journey.
I was born and grew up in Istanbul, studied Biology in University and had my master’s degree in Botany but since I was a little child, I spent a lot of time drawing and painting. After I graduated, I decided to follow my inner voice and decided to pursue my dream to be a painter. Since then, I have been creating art. In 2015, I moved to London, and by sheer coincidence started living in the flat where Mondrian made his studio.
2. When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
When I was about 20, I decided that I can only be an artist. But society affects us, and the system is pushing us to work for its ends. In Turkey it’s a rare thing to have a career in art unless you are really privileged. I think you need to be able to look life from a different perspective, whoever you are; if you question the system we are in, if you definitely know you are here to make people feel a piece of joy through your art, and if you are brave enough, then there is no limit!
3. Is it a financially stable career?
Art is not always a financially stable career, but the value of creating art is more precious than money or status. If we look at the 18th and 19th centuries, history writes about scientists, artists, musicians, not about the people who are trying to reach higher positions in their small world of companies. We all need to hear a piece from Tchaikovsky, or see a painting by Kandinsky to be able to resolve our feelings, and I feel maybe only this kind of meaning could save the world.
4. Who is your favorite painter/artist and why?
I have so many but if you ask my all-time favorites; Kandinsky, Mondrian and Miro. I love the way they see the world and reflect it to their masterpieces.
5. What is your inspiration for creating art?
My inspiration comes mostly from nature. I had a chance to see it in so many perspectives while studying. Also, I am a cinema lover, I love especially classics and great directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau, and Sorrentino. Good films, music and books blow my mind and I create series inspired by them with my own way.
6. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring artists?
I would say if you really do it with your heart and if have talent, you are the luckiest person in the world. Struggles happen all the time, but only artists are able to turn them into piece of art, like Picasso did with ‘Guernica’.
7. Which is your favorite book and why?
I have so many; ‘Crime and Punishment’ is one of my favorites, because it’s written by Dostoyevski, a classic, the book itself is questioning the rules created by men. Stefan Zweig books are also interesting, The Royal Game is my favorites. Also I had a chance to read Orwell, and recently enjoyed Animal Farm, 1984 and some other books from him such as A Clergyman's Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra.
The way he describes things and stories is very original. Also recently I fell in love with a book by Giovanni Papini, even he was an unusual crazy person, and had a marvelous imagination.
Bio:
After moving to Belsize Park, Mondrian's studio Ozlem began creating large scale acrylic pieces, using vibrant colors. Her background in biology, masters degree in botany, organic structures became a strong influence on her work, and key to her process is the abstraction of forms of nature to effectively describe the concepts that flow from her subconscious.
While she views her work as a reflection of how she sees and interprets the world, the impromptu flow of strong colors and shapes is intended to effect ‘user-defined’ feelings and impressions, and to facilitate a wide range of interpretation and interaction between the viewer and the artist: Merging intellectual concepts with visual ideas, using bold colors to express feelings, and mixing real and imagined organic structures with one another. This creates the impression of dream-like world, a vivid explosion of nature meeting fantasy.
Above all colors satisfy her more than anything and she hopes to share this feeling with the viewer. Her work has been well received and her recognition is growing world-wide.
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