Inspired by Turkey

Genesis of a

Muralist:

How I Got Started
By Katie Janyk

My favourite place on earth (besides
the B.C. coast) is Cappadocia, high
in the centre of Turkey’s Anatolian
Plateau. This ancient land of limestone
and volcanic tuff is riddled with the
caves and underground chambers
that have provided housing, refuge,
and religious sanctuary for many
hundreds of years.

I find the stone houses of North
Africa, Southern Europe, and Turkey
very compelling. It thrills me to see
the most dilapidated old apartments
sporting marble staircases, and the
humblest of abodes adorned with
beautifully carved stone fascias,
doorways, and window casings.
From exquisitely painted ceilings in
1,000-year-old church caves, to giant
columns carved directly from cavern
walls and hillsides, to weathered
stone panels depicting figures and
events from Hittite and Assyrian
times, architectural adornment is
everywhere.

Each year | make my way to the
centre of Cappadocia, and spend
a month or so in the small ancient
town of Avanos. On its way through
the heart of Avanos, the Kizilirmak
(Red River) coats its banks with
the rich red clay that has given this
place its soul—and its residents their
livelihood—for more than a thousand
years. Kaolin deposits are also within
easy reach, only a couple of kilometres
from town. With the abundance of
clay and long history of ceramics here,
it is indeed a small step from carved
stone building decoration to sculpted

\) ceramic murals.
(4 Although most Avanos ceramists

COLUMBIA

still produce mainly vessels and

Cliff Gilker Forest, 19 x 32 inches. Cone
10 stoneware with various oxide stains.
Panels are made as one piece, cut into
smaller sections for firing, and then
reassembled onto a wooden back for
hanging.

domestic ware, there are a couple
of muralists whose work adorns
not only restaurants, plazas and
public buildings in the immediate
vicinity, but also resort hotels on the
Mediterranean, and businesses and
government offices in large centres
like Istanbul and Ankara.

The best of Avanos’ muralists is
Erdogan Guleg, a 44-year-old father
of two whose own father was also a
renowned local potter and sculptor.
Erdogan’s studio is a little piece of
heaven to me: a cool and inviting
workspace opening onto a cozy stone
courtyard just perfect for sipping tea
and soaking up the warm September
sun. Friends, artists, students, tourists
and neighbourhood kids drop in and
out through the day; and the work
continues in spite of them all until
late in the evening. I have the run
of the studio and attached house,
free to work as obsessively as I like. I
usually manage to finish two or three
small panels while I’m there. Some of
the pieces I bring back with me for
assembly at home, some I leave with
Erdogan. In 2006, I was lucky enough

to witness, and help a little with, the
production of Erdogan’s two 20-foot-
by-nine-foot panels for the provincial
capital buildings in Nevshehir.

It took me a while to warm up
to the sculpted bas-relief murals
in Avanos. They are very different
from any of the work I was used. to
seeing. Most are representations of
the characteristic landscape, and
some of them definitely border on
kitsch. Most are still finished with a
horrid asfalta concoction that gives
me shivers about its health risks. But
I found the better pieces growing on
me. And as I began to study them
I learned something of the stories
they tell, both about the place and
about their creators. The panels show
an intensely emotional devotion to
this ancient land—to its people and
traditions, as well as its landscape.

And so, after that first Turkish
sojourn in 2001, my head began
filling with bas-relief images of my
home on the Sunshine Coast with its
forests, seashore and mountains. A
couple of years and a huge life shift
later, I started to work seriously on
producing panels using the techniques
Pd learned from Erdogan in Avanos.
My clay is different here at home,
as are the colourants and finishes I
use. But, like their Turkish cousins,
my panels most often rise out of my
surroundings in this amazingly scenic
place that I love. Funny thing Ive
noticed: when I’m working here at
home, I naturally lean towards local
subject matter. And when [m in
Avanos, I can’t for the life of me create
anything that remotely resembles a
piece of West Coast rainforest. ‘The
Power of Place is really something! @

Katie Janyk

lives and works in
Gibsons Landing on
the Sunshine Coast
when she isnt in

Cappodocia.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « April 2008