By Heidi Trautmann

The summer activities started with a workshop for Ex Libris Art in cooperation with Prof. Özden Pektaş Turgut from Gazi University and part-time lecturer at the Fine Arts Dept. at the Near East University. In a three evening course a glimpse into the history of it and its techniques were given to the participants followed by hands-on-training with lino-cut, a technique often used in this art form besides other printing techniques.

Exlibris Art is an old graphic art form for the creating of bookplates; famous people have their own, and the collecting and exchanging of bookplates has become fashionable around the world. From my friend Nazif Bozatli I received the following comment:

Ex Libris art is one of my favourites; in my opinion, one of the most leading artists in this field is Hasip Pektaş, the father of Özden Pektaş Turgut, I have some of his exhibition catalogues and admire his art very much. The background of the art dates back to the Romans (ex libris means "from the library of" in Latin); wax seals, metal and rubber stamps, signed and finished in wood- or lino-cut or litho. I have my own label too.

On the day of exhibition I visited EMAA to see the results of the workshop done by the students, part of them already experienced, but some complete novices and it was admirable to see how well they did. I let some pictures speak for themselves.

The other activity at EMAA’s will be their Summer Art Courses for children, young and older adults on painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and computer design with Corel Draw starting from July 2. The teachers are all artists and trained teachers. See some photos of their classrooms and activities of last year. If you are interested call 0533 8663085 or mail to  zehra.sonya@gmail.com