Sinanation

Came across this pool in between the takes from a private home. I am very impressed by the genius design.

I have been biased about Seal. He has a great voice and I have been a fan of some of his hits, but… The unfortunate skin problems on his face distanced the eyes from his album covers. His sparkling suit at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was too flashy even for a world famous singer.

His thick legs and unstable walk was a barrier to the smoothness of his performance on stage. His constant appearance next to his wife, Heidi Klum seemed like an undeserved publicity. I have been wrong about Seal.

His performance in Istanbul on July 19th during the Garanti Bank’s Jazz Festival was exceptional. We made the decision to go to the concert 2 hours before with Aydin. Questions like “what were his most popular songs?” and “will Heidi show up?” kept popping out on the way to the Cemil Topuzlu Concert Hall. Confused, clueless and unorganized we took our seats, waiting for a singer we were both not very impressed with. The huge legs were still unproportional. The pants were unnecessarily y tight. The walk was still sloppy. Yet, such details were only there to mislead us.

An incredible voice filled our ears. A perfectly motivated spirit recharged our batteries. A well-versed and humorous personality touched our hearts. We clapped until our palms hurt. We sang out loud any lyric we were familiar with. We cheered whenever we were prompted to. We have been blown away.

I have been wrong about Seal.

P.S.: I am also equally content to meet someone who can sweat a little more than I do on the stage/dance floor.

My trips over the years have tought me that almost all the American towns nurture a hidden gem: a restaurant, shop or a museum that stands out from all the others with its distinct character and service. It is up to the the visitor to seek this place out and appreciate its uniqueness. That place for me in Evanston has been The Alley Gallery. I must have visited it numerous times during my college years at Northwestern.

Hidden in a corner of the town’s famous Sherman Ave. The Alley Gallery is a wondrous shop of posters and frames. From vintage movies to replicas of famous paintings, there isn’t a single shelf in this place that I have been able to skip. The smell of old wood, the voice of the owner’s extremely smart parrot and the numerous gadgets spread around the posters will be enough to push you into a scene from the Harry Potter movies.

Alley Gallery is located at 1712 rear Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201

Thanks to my aunt (the beautiful lady on the far right in the photo above), a founding member of Çaba (“Effort” in English), I was invited to a unique night of music and history on my April trip to Istanbul. It was to be the best break from all the stress of surrendering to the military training in a few days. As a non-profit organization, Çaba’s main objective is to mitigate the social and financial problems faced by Turkish people and promote the wonders of Turkey, trying to create an awareness towards such problems. In an effort to renovate two schools built for homeless blind children on the outskirts of Istanbul, the organization received permission from the government to use Aya Irini (Hagia Irene) as the venue to its fundraiser.

Aya Irini is a former Eastern Orthodox Church enclosed inside the walls of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. It is known to be the first church built by the Byzantine Empire in the 4th century and was taken over by the Ottoman Empire after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.  Although the church has not been functional for religious practices since then, it has been used as a warehouse and was finally converted into a museum in 1700s. Today Aya Irini is open only for special music performances and permitted museum visits.

Çaba’s event started around 8 p.m. Outside the church, guests were trying to stay warm with the complimentary coffee, pushing against the last few chilly Istanbul nights before the summer took over. The temperature was no different inside as the government prohibits the use of heaters inside historic landmarks. Despite the cold it was impossible not to get into the mystic of the venue and praise the genius of the performers. I was part of a unique night where people from all over the city gathered to meet under the roof of an Orthodox Church within the walls of a Muslim Palace shaken with the voices of Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and Buddhist singers. Below the huge cross depicted on the domed ceiling, we were taken to a journey of the peaceful past with the Turkish folk songs sang by Meyra, the instrumental genius of Antakya Medeniyetler Korosu and the calming circles of a Dervish.

Thanks to Ekin for the great photos.

To tell you the truth I didn’t know much about Annie Leibovitz until the media and most recently the New York Magazine got a hold of her financial problems. Apparently I was impressed with her photography all along, having seen the covers of Vanity Fair and other ad campaigns.

Long story short Ms. Leibovitz is a very successful photographer who has not managed her finances as well as her work. Her story reveals a simple fact and a rather questionable conflict. The simple fact: Not all of us are good financiers and most of us are blessed with only one great ability. For Ms. Leibovitz that is photography. The rather questionable conflict: Once we reach a certain amount of fame and credibility we tend to forget about the concept of money and how easily dispensable it is (One is exactly the same as millions. It is so hard to keep and so easy to spend.). Over-consumed with fame and over-assured by credibility we try to find solitude in the private part of our lives, usually through luxury and the things we have been yearning for the most.

When Sarah (Leibovitz’s daughter) started eating solid food, a rigorous journaling policy was instituted, in which every bite and bowel movement was to be committed to an unlined black notebook purchased from the Swedish stationer Ordning & Reda. Kellum regularly ordered replacement books from Stockholm so that the journaling could easily continue from one book to another. Once, when an order got lost in customs, Leibovitz insisted on having two notebooks sent from Stockholm via a special type of courier service called “quicking.” It was essentially like buying a seat for a parcel on the next plane. The shipping cost alone came to $800.

The effects of fame and credibility are more visible in the case of an artist who excels in a solitary world of imagination. The true artist works to create a vision, not to earn his/her way in life. Acumen, insight and support are what an artist yearns for. Approval is appreciated. Fame and money are only the by-products of a natural cycle.  In reality, one can’t and shouldn’t be able to value a completely subjective work he/she has put his/her heart and soul into. A photo for Leibovitz might be valued at millions by her, but it will be much less for Conde Nast, which has commissioned it.

Accardi was stunned by the number of work prints Leibovitz would order, and apparently so was Condé Nast. After Accardi printed 300 oversize work prints of a Roseanne Barr shoot and billed Vanity Fair some $15,000, he received a letter from Graydon Carter himself, informing him that after this job, he’d be paid for no more than 50 such prints. “Like I was going to tell Annie that?” Accardi says with a laugh. “She would’ve boxed my ears.”

It is clear that Annie Leibovitz is going through rough times because her abstract world of vision and art finally clashed with the sharp realities of our capitalist world. It is suffice to say that she is only human and it could have happened and will happen to anyone as long as this rather questionable conflict exists in our universe. Let’s just hope that we will always have loved ones around us who will poke us and ring the alarm bells (hopefully before it is too late) once we lose focus and rationality.

If you have time I recommend you read the New York Magazine article “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz” at http://nymag.com/fashion/09/fall/58346/

Wall Street Journal gave a disappointing portrait of the current global art market in today’s issue. The review revolves around Christie’s deteriorating sales for 2009, which is down 49% from the same period last year. The result could have been much worse if it wasn’t for the auction house’s sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s collection at the start of the year. There are some obvious points made in the article that  should be touched on. Art is certainly one of the highly-regarded means to luxury in today’s word and will obviously be the most prone to any economic recession. Given today’s somber outlook, the art auction industry is under pressure from almost every corner. The sellers decide to hold onto their collections (unless they are under a liquidity pressure) believing that they will sell for much less at this time.  So the houses are required to hunt any available piece. The buyers want to save as much as possible instead of splurging on decorative luxury/investment. So they only put money on highly discounted or well known masterpieces. In summary even the richest of us all (aka Russia and Dubai) started to think somewhat reasonably, pushing auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s in despair for being let down after a fabolous 2008 of record sales and expansions.

What is the difference between art and design?
In my opinion:
Art is subjective and unique. It is personalized at a level where each individual is given the right to consider a piece of work art and no one can prove him/her otherwise. It is one-of-a-kind and is not mass produced. It is constructed with an established train of thoughts although it does not require a long process of planning ahead. Art reflects on the individual.

Design is objective. It has to apply to a greater crowd rather than a single individual. It is created to solve a problem or an inefficiency. It requires great planning ahead and can be mass produced to balance between supply and demand.

I finally made one of my dreams a reality. I am a strong believer that there are certain subjects that feeds each individual’s source of life. These subjects are an alternative source of energy. They provide a break, an escape from the solid realities of life. Those subjects have been art, music and food for me so far. The interest in art became absolute with artandseek, while the others are mostly in dormant phase so far.

I co-founded artandseek in July 2008 to provide emerging artists like myself a platform where they can display and sell artworks to a private community solely focused in art. It started serving members as an exclusive online art auction house, giving its community the opportunity to also promote art events around the globe. Joining artandseek (www.artandseek.com) is completely free and the only source of revenue for it is the 15% commission charged on the artworks sold through the site.

Throughout college I have taken several art classes to advance on the art genes I have most probably received from my mother. Only then did it become apparent that I needed a platform outside the classes to better weigh and price my work. I have been approached several times by friends for selling my work. I rejected the proposals each time believing there wasn’t a sufficient crowd to objectively price the art pieces. I desperately searched online for a comprehensive and slightly exclusive art site I could become a member of. All my attempts were failures. Most of the sites were overcrowded and they were choked with millions of tools, making it hard to navigate through the pages. Outside the online community, galleries were too expensive with 30-40% commissions for an artist who is not well-known with works raging USD 500-1,000. Auction houses would not go near any artists unless they were already known worldwide and have proved to be a good return on capital in their own niche market. My own art portfolio has not gone beyond 25 pieces, but I strongly believed that other emerging artists must have had the same problems I had.

With the push of my business partner we took the first steps of artandseek in March 2007. The construction of an online auction house has been much harder than I have imagined. The name evolved from the idea that emerging artists are like players of hide&seek who are hiding, but eventually want to come out. The name “artandseek” was the perfect mix between the idea and the focus. We found it extremely difficult to narrow down ideas when there were no limits on the tools we could put on the site. So many tools were first introduced and then taken out. We decided to make the site slightly exclusive to overcome the overpopulation issue I faced on the other art sites. Exclusivity would also make our users feel a little special for being part of a community who are well-rounded in art. artandseek was to be a community for art, not a social networking site. Making prospective users fill out a short mandatory application would confirm the interest in art and the site.

There are still so many things to be learned and challenges we face on artandseek. Still it has given me that alternative source of energy I have been yearning for. It has been a break, an escape from all the things we have to (not want to) make happen. I hope I can soon construct similar projects in music and food.

If you are interested I would love to make you a part of it. Check it out at www.artandseek.com

The media has been crying out from the rooftops, alerting us of a huge global economic downturn. The increasing fuel prices, decreasing consumer spending, the scarcity of rice (one of the most important sources of nutrition of third world countries), the fattening trade deficits and the stronger than ever tropical storms. None of them are foreign to us, but when all get together on the stage big question marks about the future of our bank accounts start to appear on top of our heads. It is in the human nature to always come up with a good survival plan whatever the threat is. Yet what makes this long lasting threat so grave is its unpredictability. The current economic downturn has widened the gap between the rich and the middle class by more than anyone could have imagined and it seems the art market is the biggest evidence to this. Asian, Irish and American contemporary artworks have been flying off the charts in auctions in the past couple of months. Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been posting sales that beat expectations, while the newspapers print the gloomy articles on skyrocketing fuel prices, the banks that caught their pants on fire and increasing number of bankruptcy cases. Something does not add up in this current mist we are in. On one side we have people paying millions to decorate their walls and on the other we have people selling their cars and switching to public transportation. I look forward to days of serenity and balance.

A very interesting article in New York Times titled “The Image is familiar; the pitch isn’t” caught my attention today. The article is about the artists’ accusing advertisement agencies and global brands for stealing the ideas behind their original artworks. The difficulty of protecting the whole creation behind art is revealed in the argument. The conclusion, which in my opinion is the best section, touched a very important point. None of us actually steal anymore. We borrow to make the previous better and let the future generation take on from there.

A professor at Purchase College revealed “Culture is about ongoing borrowing. It is about taking images, ideas and motifs and opening them up to new users.” I completely agree with this argument. With all the technology that surrounds our lives today we have entered into an era of mass absorption and consumption. We came to a point where we can no longer accuse anyone for stealing, borrowing or misusing an idea (especially the idea behind an artwork) unless that person confesses the crime.

If the artist starts questioning the agency that is claimed to steal his/her idea, couldn’t the whole society accuse the artist for stealing from its unique culture? Unless the artist succeeds in creating a trademark for his/her own work and directly represents his/her point of view in an idea borrowed from the society at large, it becomes almost impossible to claim rights for something that was never owned by anyone in the first place. There is not much left, but to accept the fact that we are all borrowers of ideas. If there is no ownership there are no thieves.

I guess the only safe way for an artist to make sure he/she gets credit for everything that relates to his/her creativity is to make the work visible and easily accessible by the public on the internet and the media. Only than can we remember and acknowledge the original founder of a borrowed idea.