RUYA HUSEYİNOGLU

İzmir-Aslınur Ulus is a young and talented artist born in Izmir. She started drawing something on walls when she was a child. The people around her encouraged her to keep drawing thus her interest in drawing on walls allows her to work on art. Her family always supported her special talent and she decided to study at the fine arts high school. But she couldn’t pass the special talent exam to enter the school and she left drawing for a while. Several years later, her desire to paint motivated her to study fine art again. Aslınur studied hard and entered the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kütahya Dumlupınar University. Since then, she has participated in 12 different group exhibitions and she has been performing mural art for five years.

Mural art is different from graffiti

Mural art is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling, or other permanent surfaces. Mural art is an artistic discipline confused with graffiti. The difference between mural art and graffiti is an art discipline. Although the working areas of mural art and graffiti are close to each other, mural art, unlike graffiti, is performed by taking official permission. Moreover, graffiti is a work that focuses on writing while mural art focuses on painting. We meet with Aslınur Ulus, one of the successful representatives of mural art in İzmir. We talk about both her story and the details of this special art becoming famous day by day.

“I met a teacher who painted on the wall while I was working as a lifeguard to earn money in university. I can say that I learned this art mostly from that teacher. I liked it very much when I saw how the performers of this art traveled to different countries and cities thanks to this job. Since then, I have improved myself in this field and I think I do a good job,” says Aslınur.

It isn’t considered as an art

Aslınur says that she and her friend Pınar Çetin perform their works with great pleasure. She climbs a scaffold or a crane to paint on the walls, climbing on a scaffold or working on top of a crane and this reinforces her desire to paint more. What makes her works different is that everyone can see her works in public places rather than in an exhibition hall. Working in their own way in Turkey can sometimes be very challenging for both Aslınur and Pınar. Aslınur says;

“I think it is necessary to be nice to people well and to understand the language used by the shopkeepers. We usually talk to them in front of the wall we will paint on. We think about the picture or design they demand from us there. Actually, we want to perform our work in our own way. But it is almost impossible in Turkey. We have to paint according to the wishes of the owners of walls or places. For this reason, unfortunately, you cannot perform our style. When you want to perform your style, you face financial difficulties. We have to paint what people ask from us, but we try to show our style in our painting.”