ARTIST STATEMENT When I paint my aim is not to make the wall beautiful. I paint because I have something to say and need to express it. I want to make people think about what's going on in the world; my ideas and feelings are mixed into the paint. My artistic practice is the way I explore my thoughts and emotions about human life and relationships on a personal, social and political level. The Cyprus Time Bomb Series has a deeply personal meaning for me. The works start from my personal response to a sense of injustice, and the fear, loss, pain and grief experienced in my life and in my community in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. However there is a wider universal message relating to the choices human beings make about how to live together on this beautiful planet. We can choose mechanisms of control, dominance, ideological brainwashing, unequal power relations, manipulation, betrayal and double-dealing. Or we can choose to live in mutual trust and respect, sharing opportunities and resources, communicating openly with honest transactions between people and nations. I paint because I want people to think about how to live. These paintings predominantly employ my Turkish Weave forms using the sgraffito technique. For some time I wanted to produce a modern style of oil painting that could be recognised as having roots in Turkish tradition. With this in mind I spent some time researching the forms of old Uyghur Turkish writing and experimenting with ways to adapt them into an oil painting technique. One day whilst eating ice cream I had a 'eureka' moment when I noticed some interesting movements of colour as the sun hit the side of the glass bowl. I suddenly realised that a similar effect could be produced in oil paint using sgraffito to engrave the forms of these old Turkish writings into the paint. I began experimenting with this technique during 2007. The mature Turkish Weave technique materialises in my Cyprus Time Bomb Series.