169 Moments of Not Thinking, Just Breathing Painting

Filiz Soyak is an interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of identity, memory, time, and place, using intuitive mark-making through mindfulness practices including meditation and breath. After becoming a mother in 2016, her work turned further inward drawing upon intuition and vulnerability. Meditation has become an integral connection to her creative process. Filiz’s work has been exhibited and collected internationally since 2000, and is in several permanent collections. Artist Statement: My work is deeply personal. It is how I process life’s experiences, learn about myself and about the world, understand what has left a mark and what has moved me. It serves as a guide to make sense of the feelings I have felt, didn’t know I had, and bring up what I have sometimes forgotten. My work is emotionally driven and guided by intuition. Everything from the materials I use to the process are all chosen based on what feels right in the moment. It is a practice in being authentic, digging into the layers of emotions and memories that reside in that space, and trusting myself. My work is my meditation. It is more about the process more than the end result. It is my source of calm, clarity, and inner wisdom. With my work, I seek to travel to the innermost depth of existence, exploring the landscape between the seen, the remembered, and the imagined. That energy of knowing, of generations and experiences vibrating from within, that only develop over time. My work has evolved with me and changes as I do. It has cycled through many iterations and that journey represents my history. Most recently, the change is a product of motherhood and experience – I believe I can say more, with less.