AT THE BATHS & AFTER
— Priestess Night at the Baths — Laura & Sabine & I / Mineral Hot Springs/ Good for what ails you — Mineral Baths ——— No, we were not in the baths with the menfolk. We had the baths to ourselves.
@Laura & Nurettin’s / Bahri talking about inflation vs the lousy tourist season this year — Nurettin — It’s getting really cold here in Kapadokya — There’s a baby picture of Nurettin on the kitchen wall… he has exactly the same face now. — Max & Max’s wife — Most folks won’t spay or neuter animals here. Many, many puppies & kittens.
MEVLUT & SUNA
— Ömer Özden — Leila in a rare quite moment — No, not the album Layla is a Turkish & Indian name, long before Eric Clapton — Leila is Belfast Irish & Indian from South Africa / She is a photo-journalist from CNN roaming around Kapadokya like the rest of us —- SUNA BILGIÇ — MEVLÜT BILGIÇ — Suna & Mevlüt of Asian Minor in Ürgüp — Sebnem Özden — Yes! Many, many donkeys here — The water here is VERY good for you. I bought ONE bottle & just keep filling up from the tap. — More Kapadokyan Pictos — Kapadokia Balloons — Kaili——
LAURA & MAX
Max was huge and orange, and disappeared one night after a long and voracious life. I made a Kitty Angel portrait of him, for Laura.
— Courtyard near Crazy Ali’s in ORTAHISAR — The tops of ancient arches sticking up in this courtyard—— I had pored over photos of the ancient world in my art history books for YEARS but had seen very little of the real thing. I was in Heaven.
KID WITH A STICK
Mustafa— It’s a GAME! — Old painted gate, next to OLD GREEK HOUSE / Town was built by Greeks… used to be Greek… ÖZTURK OTEL & RESTAURANT
GREEK HOUSE & WAGON
— MUSTAFA PAŞA – Shoulda left it a line drawing.
SHINY GRIN & KARABAŞ
—MUSTAFA PAŞA — YILMAZ [from] Selçuk — Cesur* *pronounced ‘Jesso,’ Sabine’s best friend — Laura’s Karabaş* *Pronounced ‘Karabosh’—— I was finally learning to just get on with the likeness with fast drawings and not worry if the subject would like them. They all did.
LADY LAMIA
— LAMIA (Light) ARSLAN (Lion) in her beautifully restored, elegant stone HOTEL LAMIA Turkish father & German mother. An artist. A long & fascinating life. “Yes, they used to tell me, Greta Garbo” She is from Istanbul — Lamia’s German mother Elizabeth — and Turkish father Ahmet — From photographs taken in the 1920s. — The sun is shining on my back I can hear Sabine & Lamia chattering happily in German as they clatter in the kitchen. They have set me to draw & are fixing breakfast. Am I in Heaven?—— Lamia had no photo of her parents together. I was able to give her this.
LONELY MOUNTAIN
— A grey day on this ruined mountainside / Once in awhile the faint shriek of birds — Cold Kapadokian wind blowing lonely on this mountain / Cry of a donkey & the calls of children but mostly silence — I’m frozen and my fingers are still / I am grateful to sit here in so many ruined years ——