Photo: Ayşe Dirikman
Who am I?
I'm part of the nature.
I have learned many things till this age, but I’m not the things that I learned nor couldn’t learn.
I have created many things till today, but I’m not the things that I created nor couldn’t create.
I love many things in this World, but I’m also not the things that I love nor cannot love.
I have three names given to me, many roles I play and jobs I’m responsible for, but I’m not those names, roles nor jobs.
There is only one thing that is constant about me: I’m part of the nature.
Birth Story of My Logo
While designing a logo for myself, the first image came to me was a heart inside a circle. Circle: as a symbol of unity, integrity and my works; heart: as it’s in my center. One of the shapes I found in the Noun Project was two intertwined circles and spirals around them. So my wish of circle combined with the spiral. Our journey of life reminds me spiral: Going inwardly towards our essence and going outwardly while growing… Open, clear, curvy, beautiful and natural.
When I showed the first drafts to Ayşe, “What if you draw by hand?” she asked. I drew. I loved drawing hearts. But when I draw and painted the spiral shape I chose, I didn’t like it that much. While browsing the internet in those days, I encountered Emma Kunz and her drawings. I remembered the rulers drawing spirals that are sold at the street. Aha! I thought I can buy one of those rulers and draw my own logo.
Meanwhile, my mother took the medical test called angiography to see if there is any obstruction in her veins feeding the heart. The doctor said that three veins were blocked and bypass surgery was required urgently. The heart came to the center of my family, not only to mine.
I came to Istanbul, to my house, to rest before my mother’s bypass surgery. I spent a few hours the next day looking for a spiral ruler. With pleasure, pursuit of adventure. I found it in the second shop that I entered, selling art supplies. I found also other tools to support me while drawing geometrically. I came home and played with the new toy for a few hours. I took the photo of my drawings the next day and transferred it to digital, but it was not as I wanted.
I returned to where I started, to the Noun Project. I met spirograph and guilloche at my second search. After browsing through different shapes, I decided on the mandala of Tatyana. By the week I completed my logo, four vessels of my mother and three vessels of my uncle were bypassed and precautions were taken Turkey-wide due to the crown virus.
We are all in the same big circle, the World, and our heart beats together.
With the hope of reminding myself and those who see it.