Leyla Akgedik - Roski Major App.

"The Crack"

Acrylic paint, 8.5 x 11 in, August 2020

"Tension"

Acrylic paint, 8.5 x 11 in, August 2020

If we never felt the thunder, we would not appreciate the storm. We need the rain to see the rainbow. And right after the darkest point of the night comes the bright sunshine. That moment when a cycle breaks, when an overbearing fear is overcome, and when the gate to a new life opens up…That moment when the cat learns that its world is greater than the four walls surrounding him, the fish breaks through the water’s tension to peak at the gleaming sun, and the concrete can no longer stand the seed pushing through it. Right before the crack is the hardest it has been. But life is teaching me about the comfort zone, just like it has taught me everything else. Whatever I have run from has come back to haunt me to a greater degree. I always feel the same anxiety when making a major decision and thinking about the opportunities that choosing the other option will bring. The pieces in this series are a reminder that light is not that far from the dark.

Gouache-painted cutouts on white gouache-painted bristol paper

8 x 8, October 2022

Gouache-painted cutouts on white gouache-painted bristol paper

8 x 8, October 2022

In DES 102, we were prompted to create two 8x8 compositions using black and white gouache only. Composition 1 had to be symmetrical and composition 2 had to be asymmetrical. One piece had to include a specific focal point and the other had to make use of repetition or pattern. I chose the word "organic" as the theme for each one of my designs. Following the guidelines, I found the work of the artist Thomas Nozowski very captivating. The biomorphic forms, his use of symbols over words to express messages, working small, leaving a wide room for the viewer's contemplation, and being "intentionally unintentional" led me to come up with the two pieces under the series titled "Surveillance." The first piece in the series depicts a human-like figure without any recognizable features, the patterns resembling those of a fingerprint. The second piece in the series depicts organic, bacteria-like figures with a nucleus embedded within them, pointed in different directions. Prominent themes include being watched, protection, constant documentation, and data collection.

"Object Drop"

Black gouache-painted cutouts on white gouache-painted bristol paper, 8 x 8 in, September 2022

In the DES 102 class, students were prompted to draw 30 – 3” x 3” squares, and in each square, draw 10 lines, each of the lines touching two different sides of the square. We had to work in sets of 3 squares, one of the sets being "trace a found object (drop object 10 times on each square and trace it wherever it falls.) Do not compose!" This artwork was created by repeatedly dropping a rectangular pencil sharpener, being strict about not changing its original location while tracing. What I liked about the final result was that the overlaps produced a pattern, as if the shape was falling into the canvas from the top edge and moving in a rolling fashion. The cut-off corners and pieces on the left and bottom edges contribute to expanding the canvas, giving it a sense that it exists beyond the boundaries of the page.

Undifferentiable

Watercolors

8.5 x 11 in, July 2022

Animal Farm by George Orwell depicts the progression of farm animals from being their truest, fair selves, to getting ugly with pride and greed, similar to the people that they drove off of the farm in the first place. The last sentence of the book reads: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” I attempted to illustrate this sentence, where pigs and people sit around a dinner table, playing cards and smoking, the pigs acting like humans, rendering themselves undifferentiable from their peers.

"Color Harmonies - Jigsaw"

Gouache

3, 8 x 8 in pieces, December 2022

The final project for DES 102 was based on 3 identical designs. Think of a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on it. We made a design with many parts; we used the same pieces of the design three times using a different color harmony for each composition. We could not rearrange the pieces but each composition would look decidedly different because of the way we used different color harmonies.

"If You Could See Me Today…"

Watercolor, gouache, and color pencils

8.5 x 11 in , July 2022

To my grandfather... who I could not visit for the past 7 years due to political issues and who I lost to COVID-19. I do not remember the last words that I told him, or what he last remembers of me. To reconcile with his death, I collected all the pictures I could find of him, and realized that there were only a few in which I was in frame with him. I will cherish this photo forever, to remember his beauty, his kindness, and our separation.

"It's Corn"

Watercolor, gouache, and color pencils

8.5 x 11 in, July 2022

My sister is only 1.5 years older than me. However, in my mind, she is an old, wise oak while I'm a wheat grass blowing in the wind, careless and safe under the protection of the oak's shadow. In all the photographs of my childhood, my sister is right beside me, be it in school, while playing in the park, or when modeling our new clothes to our grandparents. After leaving for college, I felt her absence the most. She was the parent I didn't need...my therapist, my entertainer, my driver, and my best friend. This is one of my favorite pictures of us, watching TV while eating corn, our only concern being not to a make a mess upon mom's constant warnings.