The Multimedia Monarch:
A Creative’s Flight Across Disciplines
Since I was a little girl, I’ve been told to make my mind up about what I want to do with my life. People would look me in the eyes, furrow their brows and with a tone ready to disapprove, ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. At 4 I said a butterfly, at 7 I said mermaid. At 10 my answer changed to equestrian, at 12, a singer and at 16, a psychologist. At 27 I am proud to say I am a curious woman; a multifaceted human, multi-continental immigrant and multimedia creative that refuses to settle into one discipline. I know that’s a lot of “multi” for one mortal, so how did I end up here?
My first introduction to creation was when I was diagnosed with a lazy eye at 3 years old. The doctors told mama Ozturk that concentrating on detailed crafts would exercise the eye muscles and aid recovery. Being a woman of creative solutions herself, mum decided to make a pitstop on our way home and we ended up at a jewellery supply store.
My creative journey might have started at a small bazaar in Istanbul, but with a bit of luck and the coincidence of a musician couple being our neighbours when mum and I moved to England, I was introduced to melody and harmony. By the time I was 15 I had taken vocal lessons, and had formal classical guitar training. I’d also experienced playing the piano, violin, drums, percussion and had even held a trombone and cello. From classical to electronic, it wasn’t too vast of a leap for me to start playing around with the digital mixers and audio editors on my (now rusty) MacBook Air. GarageBand would frustratingly crash every 45 minutes, but my determination was much greater than my laptop's processing power.
By the time I was in my teens, I decided to move to Canada, so I packed my bags, boarded a plane and flew to Ottawa. As if leaving the sun, sand and sea behind wasn’t enough, this also meant hitting pause on creativity for a while to focus on studies and becoming a first generation immigrant. I might have broken up with art for a couple years but art never left me. Art was outside my window with a boombox every night waiting for me to come back.
In my new Ottawa high school I took music and vocal classes. My other electives involved washing dusty charcoal off my hands and sticky acrylic paint out of my curls after having been surrounded by heat-activated clay fumes. I quickly came to the conclusion that art is only as limited as our willingness to experiment. Trying new things and exploring different avenues of expression was the closest I came to feeling like the plane instead of the passanger - then I actually jumped out of one in my early 20’s, but that’s a story for another time.
Rather listen?
If you’re more of a podcast fan, or if you’d like to be transported to your childhood years of read-along storybooks, here is an audio version of my creative journey. Click play and listen away!
After graduating high school, and becoming a seasoned veteran of the bone chilling -30° weather, I moved to Toronto where I would find a new passion towards another medium - the world of visual storytelling. While completing a minor in Communications at York University, Evan, a technologically savvy, and comedic professor, paved the way for my running the digital media lab. Using the resources at my fingertips, I started a photography and videography business at 20. To this day I remember how my cheeks hurt from smiling too wide as I skipped along to my first videography gig and I still have the (now faded + very crumpled) cheque framed..
At this point in my life, I had spent 5 years trying to catch cross-continential flights, to then catch moments and create memories that would only be subject to the erosion of time in my mind. The hectic travel schedule to make sure I spent time and be present for those I loved in the EU and the Mediterranean while building a life in Canada resulted in me catching a serious case of FOMO. My calling to FREEZE and MANIPULATE TIME, or, as the industry calls it; photography, videography & post production, just got that much stronger.
I feel incredibly lucky to be living in a time with technology so advanced that we are able to capture our magic moments with something that sticks out of the back pockets or our jeans.
During the next chapters of my life, I know I’ll witness wonders and walk into rooms that I never want to forget. I also know I want to give myself the gift of looking back on these memories when I’m shaky, achy and wrinkly, what else is a girl to do while she sits on warm sand, listening to crashing waves while sipping on a dry merlot.
I’m on a mission now to fly higher than I ever have before, and if there’s one thing the cobra chickens (geese) of Canada have taught me, it’s that there is power in numbers. I’ve captured the wind beneath my own wings, and I’d love to share this gift so you always have a reminder that you, too, can fly.