BULL & GRIFFIN FLAGON
Bas relief of warrior walking on lambs or deer — But what did he really look like? — What this was is a mystery! A hint of skeleton, fleshy limbs — Ancient bull & griffin- Hatay Museum — Sacrifice? Or drinking cup? — Wandering through phots I took at Hatay Archeological Muze in 2019 — TriciVenola 2023 — Drawing this stuff after the earthquake kept me from screaming after watching the videos of mangled children pulled from the ruins. The museums and ancient sites weren’t damaged. Only the homes and bodies of poor people.
HATAY MERKEZ IN 2019
Where is she now? Drawn from photos taken in Hatay Merkez, April; 2019. — TriciVenola 2023
Helpless to help after the earthquake in February 2023, all I could do was draw from these photos taken a few years before. This entire area was destroyed, with great loss of life.
THE SAZ MAKER
Another doorway: the Saz Maker — Şahinbey, Gaziantep, 2019 — Hope he lived to make more music.
MINDING THE STORE
A doorway in Şekitkamil, Gaziantep, April 2019 —TriciVenola 2023— A little girl, with a pink school backpack and a pink coat with clouds. I hope she’s growing up.
GLIMPSES IN OLDTOWN
Glimpses in Gaziantep & Hatay Oldtowns — April 2019 — Courtyard with somebody’s front door — Life-sized plastic boy hiding in an alley at the Gaziantep Art Museum — Very old bronze door in Hatay — Hatay Merkez — TriciVenola 2023 — Where all this life was, post-earthquake cleanup pictures on the Internet show nothing at all.
MUSTAFA FROM HATAY
Mustafa from Hatay in Ancient Sumeria – Opera Hotel Summer 2021 TriciVenola 2021 —Mustafa was the pool boy from my swimming pool at the hotel. This is particularly poignant in light of the earthquake a year and a half later. I wonder if his family survived.
LION WARRIOR
Istanbul Archeological Museum — Teeth — Sleeve — Bas relief — Muscle — Notice the lion paw dangling below his knee — Lion paws —- small relief of a giant warrior with a lion pelt & lion-head helmet — TriciVenola 2023 — I remembered this photo as being of a huge bas-relief, but that’s its presence. It’s actually rather small.
OĞUZ AT OPERA
Oğuz at Opera Hotel-Summer 2021 —TriciVenola 2021 — A friend, on harsh painkillers, had been sniffy with Oz, working his summer job at the pool, so I drew him to make up for it. I’m glad I did. Isn’t he handsome? Both he and his friend Mustafa are from the area of the earthquake.