Perge & current resident ——Perge is one of the great ancient cities of the plain, in Turkey. This was drawn from a photo months later in the hospital.
Note: Kaş is pronounced “Kosh” and Side “SEEday.”
Trici Venola —- Book 7 — ASHES OF ROSES — Kaş-Side — Summer 2000—— Some of the most beautiful work I’ve ever done. A chaotic summer between two cities in Southern Turkey: doomed romance in heartbreakingly beautiful scenery, as I realized I was never going to have the experience I wanted from this man, who one remaining friend described as “A careening festival of a human being.” But I was coming to understand I might get it from this country.
ON THE FERRY
ISTANBUL — Oh Boy- Pera on Peninsula — Ferryboat to the Princes’ Islands in the Bosporus — 9 July 2000—— A few days recovering from the emotional rollercoaster with Nizam in Side. We were still trying to make it work.
LILLY & IRFAN
PRINCES’ ISLAND — They gave me a swell time, even a carriage ride! — Lillly from Venice, Italy, by way of England. A real inspiration- loves to live and does it well. — “Aunt Augusta is my role model!” —— from “Travels with My Aunt” by Graham Greene, one novel that encouraged me in this mad adventure. At this point, it was about all the encouragement I could get.
HERE I AM
Ball o’fire Lilly “…had a house in England – always said they’d take me out feet first, yet here I am…”
— Castle where they hanged Menderes – Flat Island (Yassi Ada)
SAIT FAIK
Poet – Died 1954. The view from his dormer armchair —— Sait Faik was in frail health and spent much time at this window gazing out at the sea, writing poetry.
AT MOZAIK
Fatih — Haydar — Kurdish & Zaza At Mozaik in Sultanahmet — Esat declined to be drawn—— One of my favorite drawings from this fine restaurant, which is still there. Why do I mention who is Kurdish & Zaza? Because he told me. He was a compatriot of Nizam.
AYASOFYA WINDOWS
Rendering weeks later singing ‘I Will Survive’— This railing design is all over the place on the first floor of Hagia Sophia: sometimes in centuries-old scarred wood, sometimes in battered marble.
BIG COUPLE
…on the ferry. Wish I’d drawn ‘em at the time- I was just too wasted from no sleep…They were so big & beautiful & crazy about each other — They munched steadily & unselfconsciously from a box of candy & laughed in the sun. I was exhausted but they made me smile.
ROSE FROM TEXAS
Rose who lived in Texas awhile was a friend to me on a dark day in Sultanahmet. —On the benches in front of the Blue Mosque facing Ayasofya — We talked for an hour—— I recall that she mostly bragged about how nicely her boyfriend treated her, in the teeth of what I was coming to realize about my own.
RUDE BOY
A horrible travel agent—— I don’t remember what he did but I was sorry I’d wasted sketchbook paper on him.
GABRIELA IN BANGLES
Always gorgeous, always a friend. Don’t remember how she came to be in Istanbul when we were but I was glad she was there.