FEMPROFILE

Kadriye Selin Kaçar was born in Rize, Turkey in 1965. She started her career in Law Consultancy. Currently, she is the owner of the D&S Art Gallery in Tuzla-Istanbul. She is preparing students for the entrance exams of fine arts faculties and in addition gives lessons to adults and children. Over the last two decades she had many domestic and international art exhibitions.

Who are you and what do you do?

I love nature and the colours associated with it – in particular spring and autumn; I think of spring as rebirth and autumn as peaceful rest – very much like life and death. I enjoy having a laugh on life and believe that the best form of protest is a smile. I truly enjoy reading, needless to say drawing and painting and whenever I get a chance I like to travel to places that I have not seen to date.

I believe that the world could be a better place with art.  As a teacher of art I find the most important things are to stimulate creativity and assist my students to believe in themselves through constant motivation. Socrates was spot on: “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make people think”.

How do you work?

I become rather introverted and cut all my connections with the outside world. I always research the philosophy of the theme that I have decided to work on before I put a pencil or a brush onto the paper.

I am an impressionist painter. After my graduation I tried to draw or paint whatever I saw but over time I started to work on a theme / concept basis. In the past themes I pursued were mainly landscapes and Istanbul’s historical dwellings. Now I love to do animals and in particular roosters.

Although I could talk about what has changed through the years,  I prefer to mention those that have remained with me since the beginning: love for nature and historical dwellings; the shades and tones of blue and green and my loose watercolour technique / style.

Of course every now and then I am facing a creative block. Impossible to put a pencil or a brush onto the paper. Only thing what works for me is to wait until I have realize that I have truly missed working on an art piece.

What role does the artist have in society?

The environment in which one works and music are in my opinion integral to the work of an artist.

An artist needs to be a good role model portraying in particular how to be sensitive towards the social responsibility areas which need to be addressed in the society in which the artist is operating in.

What’s your favourite artist?

Nüzhet İslimyeli, Sami Yetik, Şeref Akdik, Andy Warhol, Lucien Freud, van Gogh – just to name a few. It is my dream to be compared one day to Nüzhet İslimyeli, Sami Yetik or van Gogh.

My ultimate professional goal, like most artists, is to have my name remain after when I no longer am.

What do you dislike about the art world?

Selfishness, not being open to change and not being helpful to young potential artists.

What is your dream project?

To have my own gallery where my art pieces would be on display. In this place, at the same, people would come together and produce art work free of charge.

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