“I grew up in the grand city of Istanbul, a cosmopolitan melting pot consisting of 15 million souls. My heritage is that of Eurasian mixed with Byzantine and Seljuk-Ottoman Culture. In the broadest sense, Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul bridges the Mystical East and the Pragmatic West. As a person of mixed culture, I am fascinated by other cultures just as I am my own. Through my experiences of living in one of the world’s most exotic cultural crossroads, it is no wonder that a delight for such diversity and a hunger to venture into the world to further experience such variety of culture was created within me. It is this desire and yearning for the uniqueness of people’s varying ways of life that is reflected in my work, and I make this evident by fusing together visual elements that have opposing qualities, thus creating harmony out of dissonance.”