With his book My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize winner in Literature for 2006, inspired me to assemble this new series: with it, I want to honor the color red. In one of the book’s chapters, Pamuk poses a key question that really interests me as a painter.

What exactly is it, to be a color?

Color has been a constant in my work, and for a long time there’s been an imperative need to express myself in red.
Why? I don’t know, but maybe these encaustics bathed in red, or black and white with a touch of red, like those from the days of Ottoman Empire illustrators, called forth answers to a few questions… or maybe not. Artists never cease struggling to find themselves.
What follows is me textually narrating some of the ideas from the Turkish literary genius.

What does it mean to be a color?

“Color is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness. Because I’ve listened to souls whispering – like the susurrus of the wind – from book to book and object to object for tens or thousands of years, allow me to say that my touch resembles the touch of angels. Part of me, the serious half, calls out to your vision while the mirthful half sours through the air with your glances. How happy I am to be red! I’m spirited and strong: I know I call attention to myself and they can’t resist me.”
“I do not conceal myself: For me, delicacy manifests itself neither in weakness nor in subtlety, but through determination and will. So, I draw attention to myself. I’m not afraid of other colors, shadows, crowds or even of loneliness.”
“How wonderful it is to cover a surface that awaits me with my own victorious being! Wherever I’m spread, I see eyes shine, passions increase, eyebrows rise and heartbeats quicken.”
“Behold how wonderful it is to live! Behold how wonderful to see. I am everywhere. Life begins with and returns to me. Have faith in what I tell you. As I bring my color to the page, it`s as if I command the world to "Be!" Yes, those who cannot see would deny it, but the truth is that I can be found everywhere.”