On my series Freedom and Lines
Everyone wants to be free in their own way. There are lines everywhere in life, though. Some are given to us by society. Some are laws. Some we impose on ourselves, and we may even forget that we drew them. Mostly, we live constrained by these lines.
Life is a delicate struggle between these lines and our search for freedom.
When I was a child, I spent my summers in my father’s atelier. He is a serigraphy artist. I remember the sound of the racle going across the silkscreen and the smell of paint and thinner – even now, that smell can carry me back there in a second, as if no time has passed. The paint went through where the screen was open. Where it was closed, nothing went through.
Just like the lines in our lives. They decide how much of our freedom gets through.
Unlike the lines on the silkscreen, though, ours are not fixed. That is good news.
Freedom is not always easy to handle. Too many choices can be confusing. It is like painting. When there are no lines at all, the colours become mud. When there are too many, nothing really moves. A painting needs both, and so does a life.
I think about the lives we did not live. The other cities, the other choices. Only a line separates them from the life we have. They are still there, on the other side, waiting to unfold. Knowing we can still cross that line sets us free.
There is a moment early in the morning when it is not dark anymore but not light yet. You cannot see what is coming, but you can feel it. Every new day is a chance to cross that line.
Somewhere between the lines, the colour gets through.
I don’t want these paintings to explain anything. When you look at them, you will see something I did not see. That is yours. I hope you take a moment with it.
— Naciye Sekerci, 2026