Interview with the artist Bilge Ugursu

Bilge Ugursu is a Berlin-based abstract artist. She describes her style as figurative abstract expressionist and uses mixed media in most of her artworks. She had her very first abstract piece exhibited at the age of 9. Her exceptional artworks have been exhibited at many well-known international galleries since 2019. She currently lives in Berlin and is working on new pieces for her upcoming solo exhibition.

www.artstation.com/bilgenisan | @artbabil1x1

ARTIST STATEMENT

Ugursu has developed a unique concept by combining her classical paintings with digital art to create a smooth synthesis without rules and conceptualizations. You can see both brush strokes and digital pixels in her artworks and experience a unique perception of simultaneously looking at a canvas and computer screen. Her artworks, therefore, are quite experimental with a contemporary spirit. She uses a lot of psychological and scientific metaphors in her artworks as she has always been amazed by the intersection of art and science as a neuroscientist.

INTERVIEW

First of all, tell our readers a little bit about you. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with images?

I am an abstract artist based in Berlin and have been in love with painting for as far as I can remember. I have been painting since early childhood, and this was my way of communicating with people around me rather than speaking. That is such a hard and quite indirect form of communication as you might imagine. Therefore, over the years, 'not being understood' gives you an 'alien' feeling in society, but this has become my strongest drive to paint, even more, to experiment with different media, and to create more uniqueness. That is how my paintings have evolved to a more abstract form, which wasn't the case at the beginning. 
I have exhibited in many international galleries so far and have been featured in well-known art magazines and platforms as an emerging artist. I had my first solo exhibition, 'the Double Slit Experiment on Faces', in 2021, and I am currently trying hard to create more art despite my highly demanding schedule due to my job as a researcher. But I am quite happy about where I ended up so far and can't wait to meet many more art lovers during my second solo exhibition, which I plan to start in 2023.

What is your personal aim as an artist?

My only aim is to create more and always better art, nothing more. I used to care too much about a great art career and what other people might think of my work, which really affected my potential at the beginning. At some point, I started hearing others more than myself, which is the worst thing that can happen to any artist or anyone trying to be creative. I cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to hear your own voice before anything else. Art pledges uniqueness, but you can never be unique enough if you have thousands of other voices rising around. I can easily tell that as long as I am creating more art, that will be enough to make me feel complete, and that will always stand as the one and only aim in my art career. 

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

I don't have a standard track to follow. Sometimes I start my work completely digital and work on it for several hours. I have a golden rule tough to keep my work hidden from any eyes, including mine, at least for a couple of days after the first phase, and then I look at it again in another place with different surroundings. The effect of it has genuinely been gold on my art. It helps me be more explorative in my work since I try to see it through my mind and find missing points without looking at them. When I finally get to look at my work again, I can really see the new patterns to be added in different colors, even shining in front of my eyes! That guides me throughout the period until it develops into its final form. If I start my work digitally, I mostly continue on canvas or on hard paper, sometimes even on glass. If I start on canvas or paper, I transfer it to my computer and continue working digitally. I can confidently say that working with such mixed media is hyper-effective in boosting creativity in many ways.

In your work, you mix traditional painting and digital art. How did you come up with this concept? And how did it evolve over time? 

I started painting early, so I can remember trying to isolate myself and paint even when I was six. But if you ask my family, they will tell you it was even before that. I have always been best friends with my painting sets and papers. So for a long time, I mostly used hardcover papers and canvas; however, after some time, I felt like something was missing, which had taken me too long to figure out. I had too much to express and put on a paper, and I remember how much I hated it, for instance, when I realized I didn't have enough of a particular color of paint or different size of a brush. I found it so limiting because I was trying to create something at that very moment, and such technical challenges were so meaningless but effective enough to play with my focus. This is how I started switching to digital art, where I had all possibilities, colors, and techniques at my fingertips, and nothing was limiting me anymore. Therefore, I started producing digital art and learned a great deal about it, which wasn't easy. However, after a while, I realized looking at a screen to see my work did not give me the same great feeling that I remembered from the times when I had looked at the completed versions of my classical paintings. Something was missing again, but I could never define it. Maybe I am just an old school, but I couldn't help it back then and still cannot. This is how I started combining my classical paintings with digital art, and I can never tell you enough how much that boosted my creativity and satisfaction! I had no limits, and I was able to precisely express my feelings, my exact thoughts, and the exact patterns in my head, thanks to the endless possibilities offered in the digital world. But I could also continue on the same work on canvas or paper, adding too much from what I felt deep down using my body, which was never possible with digital art. I even remember myself dancing around a canvas with paint dripping from my fingers, which made the painting more than ever alive, and whenever I get to look at that work from time to time, it reminds me of that very moment, which is so precious. So this is my journey of how I developed my concept, and it is still evolving.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your work? Do you have any specific references?

Everything has the potential to be my inspiration, tiny little things can easily inspire me, but I also have the disadvantage of getting easily distracted or discouraged. Therefore, it is vital for my art to have a peaceful place in the mid-lights, with my choice of music playing and no one around to distract me. I also have to say science has been one of my biggest inspirations, particularly neuroscience and astrophysics, for which I have the privilege of having enough knowledge to be inspired. 

Is there any other medium you would like to experiment with? Have you considered going into NFTs?

I believe I have experimented with most of the media that are around so far. This was my biggest chance, so I could find my own way without regrets since I had already tried many other possibilities. And yes, I have been considering a lot about going into NFTs lately, and some of my works are already on OpenSea. I just need a bit of time to be completely involved.

What is your favorite experience as an artist so far?

I think it is quite a unique experience when you look at the final version of your painting. That is such a proud moment with mixed feelings since you are holding something completely unique. It basically came out of your mind, and there is no other copy of it anywhere else in the world. I think this feeling is an exclusive experience that anyone can imagine.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about? 

I am currently working on my next solo exhibition, which will also include lots of activism, particularly for the underrepresentation of women in art and science as well as the climate crisis. On top of that, I have a group exhibition coming up in Barcelona at the end of July, and I will announce the details on my social media accounts soon. I am quite excited for what is the next unexpected change in my life, particularly in my art career. I can't wait to see the next couple of years ahead!

Finally, share something you would like the world to know about you?

I can share one of my future dreams with the community.
I get a lot of comments regarding how difficult it is to understand my paintings or see the patterns hidden in them. However, I also hear that when people start figuring out the meanings underneath my work, they enjoy it a lot, and then my works stop being just a couple of paintings anymore. That is how a bunch of colors and patterns evolve to mean something, and this is the beauty of art. I even came across people who started reading on the aspect after being inspired by one of my works. Hearing such stories is a great pleasure, and I cannot thank all these people enough for sending me such lovely messages with their way of perceiving my art. It is very precious to be looking at someone examining your art in detail and commenting with their highest imagination. It is unbelievably inspiring to hear their interesting comments. That brings us to my dream of having an art book with my paintings and with all these comments from this wide variety of people who once tried to put a meaning on them. You cannot believe how diverse ideas and endless imagination these people have by just looking at the very same painting of mine, and that is the most exciting way of receiving feedback. I am telling you all, please keep those coming so I can put them all together one day. I will call the art book 'Conversations with Babil,' and you will all be involved in the story. I can't wait!