My impulse to make formal geometric designs is matched by an equally powerful desire to make free gestural paintings in black ink.

As an abstract, nonobjective artist, narrative hasn’t been an element in my work. Because of the beauty of the physical shapes, the movement of the hand and brush, I was drawn to Japanese and Chinese characters and Arabic script.

Soon after coming to Turkey a friend introduced me to Karalama. It looked to me like the script on documents and scrolls made prior to the founding of the Turkish Republic, used before the adaptation of a Western type of phonetic based alphabet. But rather than text, the character like forms were really just practice sheets of rhythmic lines and gestures.

It was like an unknowable story. I liked the concept of it, to create a personal language that could only be guessed what it’s meaning might be. It’s a bit like poetry, there’s a lot of room for interpretation.

These are my works in my language.