Burcu Köleli

I am Burcu Köleli. I am from Ankara, Turkey. I currently live and work in Tacoma, WA. I am working as a visual artist and illustrator. I work with both digital and traditional mediums. I create figurative digital illustrations and gouache paintings. As a passionate intersectional eco-feminist and a part-time yoga and meditation instructor, my works are rooted in activist movements and mindfulness practices. I explore our relationship with ourselves, each other, and the environment through my work. The manifestation behind my paintings is that everything starts with self-love, and everything is connected. When we love and accept ourselves, the love spreads onto our surroundings, others around us, and the environment, and our relationships with both get stronger. Therefore, body neutrality, positivity, and affirmations are heavily present in my work. I play around with female figures and challenge the stereotypes against women's bodies. I aspire to create inclusive artworks which anyone can relate to by drawing figures with different body types and using unconventional colors like pink as skin tones and blue as hair color. I use elements such as the sun, plants, and flowers in my compositions to underline our connection with nature. In Anatolian culture, women were goddess-like figures. They represent wisdom, creativity, and fertility. I carry that in my artwork by placing the sun close to women, which symbolizes their power and light. Poet Toi Derricotte's words, "Joy is an act of resistance," is one of the foundations of my artistic voice. Joy empowers resistance, affirms our humanity, and provides the vital element of activism; hope. So, I create works that evoke hopefulness and spread joy. Overall, my paintings celebrate womanhood, sisterhood, nature, and life itself.