THE BYZANTINE CAR WASH
Karakoy c1204 AD/CE. Genoese on Byzantine foundation- chapel slaughterhouse car wash, now doomed for a hotel.
Tag: sketchbook
EVERY STORY HAS A FACE: Plein Air Portraiture
THE TAILOR SHOP Sahin Gurvardar and his son Taner work up top in the Grand Bazaar in a shop the size of a teakettle. That’s Sahin as a young blade over his own shoulder, and that’s his father in the photo below. The Gurvardars have been in this shop since the Republic, laboring under towering piles of fabric, making thousands […]
ST JOHN’S: Drawing in the Wake of the Gospels
ST JOHN’S BASILICA looks like it has been picked up and dropped. The vast rambling ruin of St John’s Basilica was demolished by earthquake, ravaged by marauders, scavenged by later builders. Huge jagged chunks of sixth-century masonry rear at improbable angles. Columns march in all directions, supporting nothing, reassembled and re-erected by the Turkish Government. Hordes of Christian pilgrims stagger in […]
LYCIAN TOMBS and BURNING CITIES: Kas 2000
LYCIAN TOMBS & BURNING CITIES Have you ever seen Perge? A plain, under an endless sky, littered with the broken remnants of a city old when Alexander came. There’s a big square stone gate, and through it the remains of a huge fountain: chunks of carved stone balanced on either side; and beyond that an expanse of broken columns, some […]
MIDNIGHT AT THE APOLLO: Drawing in Side 2000
Yeah, just run right out before sunset and render the Temple of Apollo, sure. I didn’t even get halfway down the four remaining high sere columns when someone right off of ancient Greek vase stepped into view just begging for a portrait. He’s woven into the drawing, so innocent and beautiful. I’m pained by my limitations. These people are too […]
A BREATH OF AIR: Drawing In Sirkeci
DRAWING MYSELF OUT OF THE DARK 2010 was a year of peril and hassle. Relentless hotelization forced me to move, a hideous enterprise involving months of searching and expense. A good deal turned sour. A good friend left town. Then to top it off I got hacked, lost 400 addresses, 7 years of networking, entire short stories. I tried to reach […]