Everything started when I went to the Brighton Beach in New York. I walk on the shore barefoot and took some sand to home. Then, I became an obsession with creating images from sand on white paper.

“Look, democracy!” cried the kid excitedly, showing the horizon to his grandpa, in front of the camel caravan. The old Bedouin squinted while he looked the place where the desert and sky meets. “Don’t be happy so quickly” he said, “it may be a mirage. I had seen it many times, assuming to be real”.

“Bak demokrasi!” diye bağırdı sevinçle çocuk, deve kervanının başında, dedesine göstererek ufku. Gözlerini kısıp çölle gökyüzünün birleştiği yere baktı yaşlı Bedevi. “Hemen sevinme” dedi, “serap olabilir. Defalarca ben de görüp gerçek sanmıştım onu…”

Necdet Yilmaz

The Wizard of Oz is one of the world classics by L. Frank Baum. After the cyclone Dorothy founds herself in a different lands and meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion and the other fantastic characters. The book I illustrated came up recently, published by Kelime Yayinlari.

When I was a child I used to watch the documentary about sea by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. This used to take me to a different world. I learned a lot things about sea species, fish, whales, octopuses, sharks… When I did this illustration for Merakli Minik, the science magazine for children, I remembered those days I wanted to be a diver.

“This too shall pass” (Persian:این نیز بگذرد, een niz bogzarad, Hebrew: גם זה יעבור, gam zeh yaavor, Turkish: Bu da geçer) is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. The phrase seems to have originated in the writings of the medieval Persian Sufi poets, and is often attached to a fable of a great king who is humbled by the simple words. Some versions of the fable, beginning with that of Attar of Nishapur, add the detail that the phrase is inscribed on a ring, which therefore has the ability to make the happy man sad and the sad man happy.

I wrote this calligraphic proverb with water, the most temporary medium. It was not easy because of the summer heat was making water evaporate so quickly. After taking this photo it totally disappeared, like richness, poverty and time…

If I cry, would you hear me,
in my verses,
could you touch my tears,
with your hands?
I didn´t know that the songs are so beautiful,
the words are so insufficient
before I fell into this trouble.
There is a place, I know;
It is possible to say everything;
I am pretty close, I can hear;
I can´t tell.

Orhan Veli Kanık

Anlatamıyorum

Ağlasam sesimi duyar mısınız,
Mısralarımda;
Dokunabilir misiniz,
Gözyaşlarıma, ellerinizle?

Bilmezdim şarkıların bu kadar güzel,
Kelimelerinse kifayetsiz olduğunu
Bu derde düşmeden önce

Bir yer var; biliyorum;
Her şeyi söylemek mümkün;
Epeyce yaklaşmışım, duyuyorum;
Anlatamıyorum.