IZ TV & DEMONSTRATORS
-These two were all over the place filming -Aydin filmed me drawing this portrait of Isil as she interviewed me for IZ TV. -Isil -One emerald eye & one brown -A stone wall, immeasurably old, carved with writing in an ancient language, and in front of it sit three young men & a grandmother under hand-lettered signs protesting its destruction, saying “We will live under water if we have to.” -A beautiful wolf face -Aydin -2007—–Iz TV’s half-hour Hasankeyf documentary mostly featured Buket and me. I wrote on a napkin: Trici Venola’s participation sponsored by KALAMAR RESTAURANT in KUMKAPI, and held it up to the camera. It went into the subtitles. When that showed up at my patron Celal’s restaurant, the whole place exploded. The documentary aired frequently and for years. I could always tell because I’d get recognized in the street. Oh, how I wish we had won.
AHMET, CIHAT & AN ANCIENT PIER
-Ahmet Tunçay Karaçorlu -Assyrian Bridge Monolithic Ruins -Cihat Köseoglu -I really, really like this guy’s face for some reason… – He won the photo contest! – Bane Bakarmisin – Akshahir – Konya – 2007—–Drew these guys on site and then pulled a background from my photos for them. Ahmet Tunçay was just all over the place, I think I drew him more than anyone.
SUN FACE & PIER
-View of enormous Assyrian stone pier from the castle -Yis Yeshim -Face like a sun and golden hair – 2007—–Was actually able to get a decent drawing on site from the castle. And this girl’s glorious full face was like a benediction wherever she went. The drawing in the center was done on the train, heading home.
ANOTHER DEAD RIVER
-Another dead river, another dam – Organizer Given Eken points out another dead river to rapt audience, including me. -2007—–How proud the villages must have been of their bridge when it was built, when the hills were green and the tree was alive with a leafy crown, dappling the rippling water. All across Turkey are these sad dried-up riverbeds, and in the distance, the hard bright blue of another dam.
SPOON DANCING
-Our wonderful waiter spoon-dancing – 2007—–The spoons were castanets. Wow.
COMEDIENNE & FRIENDS
-Habip -Edanur -Aysegül -This hilarious woman kept everyone laughing for hours. I couldn’t understand the words, but man, was she funny! – 2007—–She didn’t want me to draw her in disarray, so we arranged a later session. She showed up very dignified, and I drew her anyway. I wanted to celebrate her. We very much needed to laugh.
BALL O’FIRE
-Fellowship! We were exhausted and sweaty but did we care? A raucous party all Saturday night as the train roared through Antalya. -Gültar -Whatta ball o’fire! Danced all night in the aisle- got everybody up – 2007—–We thought we were pretty outrageous until one of the waiters said, “Oh, you should see the trains from Iran. The minute we cross the border, everybody just explodes, ripping off all that black and jumping up on the tables.”
HASANKEYF ON THE TIGRIS
A great friend and champion of Hasankeyf once told me that its charm was threefold: golden cliffs, antiquities, and reflective water, all in a perfect ecological system. This drawing took me a couple of days, I was so determined to capture every precious doomed detail. I combined several photos into one panorama and learned a great deal. Below, the picture is divided into four for easier viewing.
A rich civic area, full of enchanting terraced houses overlooking the river, while people still lived in the caves above. Down to the left of that big dark arch is a collection of Romanesque ruins: looks to be a ruined domed structure. At bottom left of the drawing, a white horse grazes at the water’s edge. Here is evidence of collapses, rebuilding, and a great fall of debris below the slide area behind the Arabic Minaret.
The lumpy cliffs next to the Castle (center) are honeycombed with ancient staircases zigzagging up the cliffs. The biggest is our Zigzag Staircase, at right. The tiny triangle left of its bottom is the vast entrance to Transpassers’ Cave. The cypress grove nearby was newly planted in 2007.
I hadn’t realized, back in 2007, that Hasankeyf continued up along the tops of the cliffs. The rope-and-wood bridge from pier to pier across the Tigris washed away in a flood. The ancient piers have been tricked out with an attempt to make them look as they once were.
We lost our fight, but we tried. Hasankeyf That Was endures for me in art, and in the collective unconscious. As everybody knows, once something is uploaded, it’s virtually eternal.
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