Sweet fruits of my labor????

Here is a little taste of the painting room at school. Paint everywhere but that means there is work going on! I like it a little dirty! Charcoal and oil pastels are fun. Cay(tea) and ciggarettes all over the room (yes you can smoke in the classrooms...a little different than cali). Below is my first painting done in Turkey...


















I believe I will call it "Sitting in Your Eyes." The name is inspired by the book Honeymoon in Purdah, An Iranian Journey by Alison Wearing. I highly recommend the book. It is about a Canadian girl's travels and the people she meets throughout Iran. A friend gave it to me before I left and it was amazing to read while becoming acclimatted to the Turkish life. The quote that inspired me is this...

"At the top of the stairs, he pauses before opening the door to his house. 'I invite you to our home where I live with my family. I do not ask to you if you are good person. Already I see it: your heart it is sitting in your eyes'."

They had just met this man who invited them into thier home. I find Turkish people doing this all the time. Here have some tea...let me feed you... and we will talk with our eyes, our hands and small words since my Turkish is so awesome(haha). Also the small pocket dictionary is my new good friend! Do American people do this? I feel like many of us are scared of strangers? What will they do to me...blah blah blah??? Or is it I am more aware of talking with eyes and communicating in other ways because I can't speak the language? Sometimes it is nice to just see and feel peoples actions rather than listening to a bullshit story round and round in circles...Words can be a beautiful, beautiful thing as long as they are backed with action. What do you think? Talk to me...(haha)