AYSE KESKIN UYSAL, TURKEY

Why does a Western-trained artist turn to miniature painting? Well, we live in a fast-paced world where everything is produced and consumed instantly. A voice within me has always said to slow down. With its fine craftsmanship and focus on tiny details, miniature painting—an important Arab, Persian, and Ottoman art form—has helped me to do just that. I take my inspiration from the Ottomans, both in terms of style and subject matter. Like their masterpieces, I use gold and bright and vivid colors, but balance them with more contemporary, lighter, and transparent ones. Ottoman figures, like mine, showed facial expression, but mine have more volume. I mix single- with traditional multiple-point perspective, allowing greater freedom in depicting details. But perhaps the most important quality my work shares with that of the Ottomans is its visual storytelling.