coup on distillate

I am pleased to announce that my pigeons were mentioned on the super-cool Australian site Distillate, which I have just spent a great deal of time clicking through— seriously, this is one fun site. There are pages and pages full of fabulously hip design, décor, art and delicious recipes— margarita popsicles and madeleines? Mmm.

I highly recommend checking them out. I'm looking forward to trying out the Kuchen recipe and making some cushions from random fabric— perhaps from some of the striped scarves from the Spice Bazaar.

Angry Women and The Candy Collective Coup

Finished and mailed off to San Francisco today! My Angries are set to be auctioned off for charity at the 2009 Junior League of San Francisco Fashion Show. The theme for the event is "The Art of Fashion," and I am just thrilled that my ladies get to be a part of it. The Junior League is a charitable and educational organisation of women dedicated to strengthening the community through volunteer efforts, advocacy and grants.

In some exciting news, my interview in the latest issue of Candy Magazine has come out! Candy is an independently produced downloadable magazine that showcases Irish and international creativity. I am honoured to have been included in such a beautiful magazine— the talent is truly inspiring and the design makes me swoon. Check it out and download this fabulous collection of work here— oh, did I mention it's free?



See the full interview on pages 75 through 79.

"broken cookies taste the best."

Sometimes cold, rainy-snowy Sundays are best spent indoors, in pajamas, baking cookies with your little sister. We made a batch of deadly peanut butter chocolate chip and a healthier banana oatmeal. Cookies that were not presentable were naturally sacrificed, accompanied by cups of tea or milk.







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With a full and content stomach, I continued working on my latest Coup and an Angry Woman, part of my Angry Women in Party Dresses series. I've been drawing my Angries for a couple of years now, and selling them out of a gallery in SF. This one is to be donated to The Junior League of San Francisco's charity auction at their 83rd Annual Fashion Show, which is on March 14.

The Angry Women started as fun workplace doodling and evolved into an actual series of ink drawings. They are highly fashionable women that are of course, angry. I have a great time drawing them, and sometimes envy them for their fabulous gowns and jewels.

a little of this and that

I haven't spoken Turkish since I was ten. It's amazing how languages can just slip away if they aren't used. I've got some basic vocabulary down but I'm a little shaky at stringing words into sentences. The other day, I wanted to tell a cab driver to drop me off at the fish stand, instead I told him emphatically that "Fish is ok." We had a good laugh, then I tried to say "good evening" and ended up telling him "good night," which is only used intimately. We laughed even harder. That's the wonderful thing about Turkish people— I've never felt ridiculed or afraid to try and speak their language. People here are quite patient, kind and willing to help you learn— just today I was given a friendly pronunciation lesson at a frozen yoghurt stand. Apparently I've got my "ü" sound down!

Turkish is a very musical language with everything built on vowel harmony; words that begin with vowels that are sounded in the front of the mouth will end with front-sounding vowels. Likewise, words with throaty vowels will end with throaty vowels. Turkish is what's called an agglutinating language— "attachments" or suffixes are stuck onto words to create a sentence or part of a sentence. It sounds complicated, but once you've got the rhythm down, it comes easier than most languages. There are also very few grammatical irregularities, and everything is phonetic!



After the yoghurt and the language lesson I worked on some pigeons, a drawing of a migraine I had recently and an entry for Moleskine Exchange 48.
I also drew a guy I saw in a café this afternoon, but I don't like how it came out. If he grows on me, he'll be scanned and posted.

a semi-productive day

I had planned on going to the Dalí exhibit at the Sabanci Museum today but when I saw the line that stretched down the road, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I went home to work on some new pigeons for my Coup series.
I started Coup in 2007 for fun, never expecting them to fly off the shelves as they have. But really, who wouldn't want a drawing of a pigeon with a Napoleonic complex? I adore pigeons, and took to studying their behaviour back in San Francisco. I noticed that many pigeons were missing feet from all those horrible spikes people place on ledges. In all the places I have lived, I had never seen such mangled birds. I imagined that they had had enough, that a pigeon's coo was a call for a coup. I broke out my Prismacolors and metallic ink, and Coup was born. I'm delighted that it has been so appreciated!

Once I get the new pigeons I am working on to a good point, I'll post a photo of them for you. In the meantime, here's a small sampling of my feathered friends:



On a different note, these are two of my latest sketches. The first takes place in a Starbucks— I saw this woman and had to draw her, her hair was enormous and her expression incredible. The second I sketched tonight at Filiz, a fantastic fish restaurant in Tarabya.