Art educator and painter Luna Tülay shares the details of her life, her interest in art, personal development, and her roots with us.
I believe interest in art starts in childhood for everyone; of course, genes also play a role, but the environment in which you grow up guides you. That’s how it was for me too. Parents, especially the people around you, become role models with how they view and transform an event or an object. A tree bends while it’s young. Talent is important in art but not sufficient on its own. My father taught himself to play the violin and showed me how to keep rhythm with notes, but I lost him early. My mother was a healer, someone who worked tirelessly for the well-being of society. She is still an example to me with her sixth sense and intuition. I think I inherited my artistic side from my father and my personal development side from my mother.
I was born in Mersin. I lived for many years in Tarsus, Mersin, and received my education there. Collecting my experiences in Turkey, I eventually came here. Actually, my roots are Cypriot. For instance, my great-uncle Mehmet Remzi Okan is the one who published the first Turkish newspaper in Cyprus, called Söz. When Atatürk landed in Samsun on May 19, he was the first person to report it, saying “He is our future.” My uncle decided to publish a newspaper called “Söz,” declaring he would be the voice of the people. When Atatürk ordered a Turkish alphabet printing press with the first budget of the Republic, he received my uncle’s invoice and learned that an order had also come from Cyprus. Their communication developed that way. Atatürk even paid my uncle’s invoice, saying, “This is our gift to Cyprus.”
We are truly an Atatürkist family. It was Atatürk himself who approved the surname "Okan" for our family. I take great pride in my surname and my ancestors. Of course, communication between my father and uncle in those years was not easy, but I always remember the copies of the Söz newspaper in our home. My uncle always served this land, and my father always said, “We have services to give to the land where we were born.” I think these words always echoed in my ears. Later, my uncle’s daughter, Bedia Okan, also became the first female journalist in Cyprus. When I returned to the island, Fevzi Kasap was making a documentary about her, and during that process I met her for the first time in Izmir. She was over ninety years old. I think my aunt waited all those years to finally meet me. She first saw me as her grandchild then, and shortly after, she passed away. My life is like a film script. Emotionally, I came back here because of my attachment to these lands and roots. My father always said, “Find your roots, do not sever your ties with them.” And that’s what I did. This is a spiritual migration, an emotional completion. That’s how I left everything behind and returned to my roots.
Art education is an important guidance
Luna Tülay says that her art education style is based on helping each individual find their own way of expression… She explains this thought for us in more detail.
Every morning when you wake up, what gives you the motivation to get out of bed, get dressed, and do things? Finding the answer to this question is actually our method of annotation. What gives you joy—cooking, doing makeup, having conversations? Once you find the answer and create a safe space for yourself, you are also creating a space of trust, love, and peace both for yourself and for those around you. Through years of teaching and listening to people, I realized that sometimes people don’t discover what truly makes them happy. Sometimes they don’t know where or how to direct themselves. When you create that channel with good conversations and guidance, and protect it so it doesn’t overflow, it flows to where it needs to go more beautifully. The greatest benefit I want to provide to people is to help them, as a guide, receive art education within themselves.
Because I believe art education is an important form of guidance. Expressing emotions, if someone needs to scream, teaching them how to scream, even encouraging it. There are people who live very inwardly and express themselves only through painting. I try to bring these out. I try to show people ways to express themselves, to be a mirror for them. I always say, a person only completes themselves when they find their mirror. My name is Nermin Tülay Okan. I began using the name “Luna” during shamanic and personal development trainings, upon my teacher’s suggestion. I have been using it for nine years now, and it has become integrated with me.
“In poetry, the meaning of words changes, in my paintings, the meaning of objects changes.”
Since 2000, the artist has held seven solo exhibitions. She opened her first exhibition in Cyprus titled “From the Skies to the Roots: My Logbook” at Art Space. In all her exhibitions, objects such as rosewood, blue ribbons, construction wires, and tree leaves are commonly used, creating unity with colors. Of course, I think all of this has a special reason.
From past to present, what I’ve described is shaped by the imagination of an object. It’s a bit like writing poetry—just as the meaning of words changes in poetry, the meaning of objects changes depending on how I use them. In my first exhibition, I used a razor blade belonging to someone who had passed away. That razor blade turned into the body of a butterfly. It could be seen as the rebirth of someone who died, or as freedom, or the sky. It could be your own “look up to the sky stop.” In one of my works, rosewood veneer scraps left over from carpenters were used as leaves. In my paintings, sometimes one leaf is real and another is painted. For me, life is like that too: a world of presence and absence. In another painting, the ribbon is real. My paintings combine holders, the held, emotions, and objects all together. None of them stand alone. Even when we wear clothing, we create encounters tied to certain moments. Emotional connections are built. I care deeply about how people transform the objects they use.
"When I look at Luna Tülay’s exhibition as a whole, I feel that she always turns her face to nature."
Absolutely, nature is our essence. We come from nature and will return to it. I believe nature and the abundance of objects tell stories. My paintings have no figures. For the first time, I used a figure in a small piece called “My Logbook.” Otherwise, I’ve always worked without figures. I prefer to express crowds and people through the objects they use and that connect them. With a footprint, I express a person’s presence. I believe a footprint tells how a person leaves a mark. Rather than directly painting a person, I prefer to tell through their traces and symbols.
"There is no coincidence in life, only synchronicity."
“Subject, flight, spring images, belonging, sky-gazing stop, butterfly effect…” some of the artist’s exhibition titles. Each carries deep meanings within.
They are indeed layered. For example, essence, subject, and “what is the self?” I am an emotional person, I must admit. That’s why I care about personal development and people’s relationships with themselves. We have two faces: one towards nature, roots, and earth, and one towards the sky. That’s why I want my paintings to encourage people to think not only about a single meaning but also a second layer of meaning. After “Subject” came “Flight,” derived from the word “edge.” I think I also write poems with my paintings. The Butterfly Effect exhibition showed how every touch and presence of a person contributes to the world, as well as the energetic influence it creates in the environment. This exhibition coincided with the Gezi Park protests. That was no coincidence either. I believe all these are meetings. In life, there is no such thing as coincidence, only synchronicity—what is also called “tao.” I believe synchronicity brings me to where I need to be.
“My Logbook” was the first exhibition in Cyprus encompassing all the works I had done until then. With such a meaningful title, the artist almost takes us on a journey through her life.
The artist also organizes painting workshops at the Continuing Education Center of ARUCAD University. There too, she achieves important work for adults, almost transforming participants.
I coordinate the painting workshops at ARUCAD University. I observe participants first, spending time with them, to see how I can help them bring out their joy of life, creativity, and talents they have suppressed for years. Then, I try to gather them with the highest possible working group. In spring, we even change our working locations. In the painting workshops, I guide participants without restricting them, using my own techniques, so they can discover their own path.
Simge Çerkezoğlu December 20, 2020