Derya Altan's Blog

as promised

derya — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:53:22 +0000

NEW GROUP BLOG!

let’s see how this goes, if it goes and how long it will last.

we are alive

on the interwebs!

http://thenofriendsclub.blogspot.com/

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

as for a personal update for anyone who still reads this

mantras for the summer (summah soon enough!)

/slash/

advice (consider them gems of knowledge, pearls of wisdom)

love is letting go

desire is suffering

c u!

derya — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:03:24 +0000

goodebyes suck and i suck at good byes. my instinct is to run away (which i often do {sorry for the stairwell incident, betsy and john…}) i just go before exposing you to how much snot i produce when crying (and i DO cry) and how sad farewells are. and they are SAD. terrible and sad. the prospect of never- to- see- your- beautiful- face- again being a reality just drives the sad even deeper. and let’s not even talk about the scariness of a future with out you, and the uncertainty that brings. yikes.

so let’s do this-

not so long, not good bye. nothing as terminal as that.

no. no. no

we’ll leave it at something a bit more open. and openness is where it’s at.

but first-

thank you (yes YOU) for reading this blog this nutty year, thank you for all the support and kindness and interest and help and everything that went into these past 11 months. i hope in these posts you can see how i’ve grown and changed and become someone and something more real than i was when i rolled into the spiz. please understand that i did the best i could, the best i knew how which maybe at times did work out so well, but i tried my hardest to make it work and to make work. and tho i am often hesitant to speak for rachel, nicholas, and arielle i KNOW my fellow airs did their best and tried their hardest, and that is all we can ask of each other.

so in that know that i love you and will take you and my year here along with me everywhere.
THANKYOUTHANKYOU

how does this sound?

see you!

bye for now!

love you!

i’ll be in boston for the summer, so those of you who want to see the great bay state, sample the glories of new england, honor the beloved motherland drop me a line.

just drop me a line anyway. i’ll be thinking of and missing you!

ps: no friends club blog coming soon… i know you are excited!

i like camping now

derya — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:00:55 +0000

i even wanted to go on hikes once i caught wiff of the woods, which reminded me of a long standing life goal, which also got me thinking of the reality of that goal…

things to overcome if i am going to do the appilachian trail someday

1. fear of moths (one alit on the headlamp i was wearing, and there was one flying around the car today while i was driving OMFG let’s just say it’s incredible i am still alive- heart palpitations!)

2. heavy dependency on waxing. if there is one thing that is scarier than a muslim, it’s the thought of me going without waxing or tweezers for four months. yeti loose in the woods!

i plan on starting training so i can maybe do the trail after grad school which means practice hikes, hypnosis and laser hair removal. you are more than welcome to join me for any and all. just drop me a line.

hiking!

let’s get some boots.

maybe there is some magic to us after all

derya — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:47:22 +0000

a robin has made a nest on the door light at the residents entrance of 149 S. Daniel Morgan

if the prospect of baby birds over the entrance to our home wasn’t enough, the mom (or pop) robin flies through the center hoop of the awnings decorative metal work as some sort of trained clever trick.

i can’t help but feel special/ touched/ chosen by this bird to help harbor it’s next generation. also i am choosing to believe the bird picked up on the family vibe we’ve fostered up on the third floor all year, and decided to tap into that for it’s own family.

bird flies through hoop every time we enter or exit the building

robin’s egg blue is a beautiful beautiful color

our nest and the birds nest fit together somehow too.

my camera is being a jerk or else i would totally try and show you.

but take my word for it, it’s pretty great

let’s begin to end it -or- peel that band-aid off nice and slow

derya — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:38:15 +0000

THANK YOU

FOR THIS YEAR

THANK YOU

festival of her lady of the milk fats!

derya — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:58:35 +0000

satisfy oh satisfy.

git yer feast on with this ungodly rich yet delish menu…

brussle sprouts braised in heavy cream with fresh thyme

walnuts warmed in butter

mixed together with linguine

fresh, hand made whipped cream

strawberries

all butter sara lee pound cake

total used: 16 oz. of heavy cream

4 tbspns of butter

yet it feels like this is per person rather than for the whole table. i may have single handedly instigated cholesterol problems in my fellow airs with this extremely delicious mouth fat expolsion of a meal. you know it’s good when no one can stop eating despite the look of complete loss of control on their faces. yum.

uuuuff. please pass the seltzer.

exoneration

derya — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:50:19 +0000

In my textile based sculptural wok, I am primarily concerned with how the use of lush materials and fabric’s tactile qualities can elicit emotions and feelings in my viewer. Rather than focusing on the body’s outward appearance however, I work with components that are internal and hidden, often referring to the shapes of reproductive organs for silhouettes. Through the use of lush materials, I entice the audience to touch my work, confronting social morays about the preciousness of art and the body. By using forms based on anatomical features, I encourage the viewer to connect my work to features inside of themselves and to imagine what these new organs might feel like as a part of their own body. Each of my material choices – velvet, felt, leather, latex, and tulle – attempts to heighten the tactile qualities of the work through sensual use of fabrication. The bright color palette and gradient color schemes I am denoting the passing of time and a delineation of depth, as a reflection on emotional experience.
By placing anatomical shapes on the body as jewelry or adornment, they become extensions of the wearer’s body. With this, I am raising questions of when and how it is appropriate to interact with art objects, and with other people. Is it suggestive for the wearer to display such forms on their body? Is it appropriate to touch them if they are earrings? What does it feel like to wear these shapes?

It is this conflict of restraint – the desire to touch and feel while knowing that it is more acceptable not to- is at the core of my work.

‘

thank you to stephen for these photos.

she chases rainbows -or- exitshow!

derya — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:52:50 +0000

everyone, all our spartanburg friends who came out for our exit show opening and rachel’s reading, THANK YOU for supporting us in our artistic endevours. thanks to our families and out of towners for being there too. so awsome to see your beautiful faces, and for those who couldn’t make it for keeping us in mind.

thanks to the hub bubble staff for all their help and aid and for the opportunity to show .

thank you! love you!

if you haven’t seen the show or maybe want a second glance, stop by the showroom . our hard work and hard won battle against art will be up till the end of april.

20 seconds is way longer than i could ever imagine

derya — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:06:42 +0000

for those (anne and baba, peeps, sara) who didn’t catch my talk20 presentation, here it is.

20 things i wish were true but know are not

Professional Lumberjack Paul Bunyan created Oregon’s Mt. Hood one night when he piled up rocks to put out his camp fire. He created the Grand Canyon by letting his ax drag behind him for a little bit in Arizona.

Due to the world wide surge of antidepressant use and their increased presence in ocean water via sewage run off the notoriously reclusive Collossus squid have overcome their existential crisis and emerged from the deep searching for deeper relationships and more meaningful human contact.

Chuck Norris’ tears actually do cure cancer. He visits people at night while they are sleeping and weeps over the afflicted. He says he might stop by Patrick swayze’s house but only if the Swayze stops smoking.

At one point in the history of the earth Pegasus’ and Unicorns coexisted, and cohabitated. They got busy together creating gods most perfect creature- the Unicorn Pegasus.

Unlike the Unicorn Pegasus, I am nothing like my parents.

That’s because my real parents are movie stars Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor who had Monty’s sperm frozen shortly before his death and put it to use as her seventh marriage dissolved. The unexpected emotional difficulty in raising the child of the gay man she secretly loved for years forced Liz to give me up to a childless couple from Massachusetts

In New York City, the Indian Deli on avenue A and 4th street, which boasts on it’s hand painted sign a selection of 400 beers from around the world, actually does have a selection of 400 beers from around the world.

Consuming copious amounts of scotch, cheap or expensive makes you way smarter.

It’s not who you are but what you wear. These for example clearly belong to a serious graduate student in a top notch fiber arts program.

Fashion designer Karl Largerfeld will live forever and never die and if he does die he will become the chicest ghost of all time.

My kittie boncuk was so beautiful that when she died she was energetically reincarnated as a tube of Mac Lipstick in the color Rage belonging to village voice style critic Lynn Yaeger, which totally makes me and Lynn soulmates.

The song Zeytin Gozulm, the source of a family nickname, was written specifically for me by the Turkish popstar Zeki Muhren.

My ancestors, ancient nomadic tribes people of the Asian steppe, are descended from wolves.

That is clearly why I am so light on my feet.

I
Cape Cod will never succumb to global warming and rising sea levels due to an secret underground system of self inflating floatation devices that innact with the push of a button from Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy

It is similar inflatable devices that make various Red Sox team members as big and puffy as they are. It is definitely not steroid use or any other performance enhancing anything.

The floatation devices are just another example of Yankee ingenuity and resourcefulness which clearly supports the fact that New Englanders do it better. There are also lobsters that big available at the stop and shop over in westford.

The other day when you went to the post office for stamps you also mailed me an insightful and eloquent love letter. The reason I never received it is obviously because it got lost in the mail.

I am, have always been, and will always be MAGIC.

thank you to cate and aaron ryba for putting the evening together. Spartanburg will host installment five sometime in the near future (this summer?) contact someone at hub-bub if you’d like to participate (knitting guild i am talking to you!)

didn’t make the cut

derya — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:12:12 +0000

this saturday! talk20! i will be presenting alongside 9 others 20 images, 20 seconds per image. it’s going to be a lot of fun and really interesting with such topics as the correlation between art and physics, local phenom slowbot’s exploits and actions, and the GATES. i will be revealing to the world 20 things i wish were true but know are not.

here, some amazing images i found while perusing the interweb for my topic that did not get used in my presentation but are too good to just let rest on my desktop.

and my personal favorite…

come out on saturday night. i hear there will be some (in)famous Pacolet “lemonade” and some mountain blues during intermission.

reception to follow the presentations!

see you there.