Artist Spotlight: Ceyda Taştan
Katie Vermeulen
“Ceyda is the most incredible, wonderful, interesting person that you’ll ever meet. She radiates an intense coolness that will simply vaporize anyone who gets too close. You’ll often see her walking around campus being cool, in her classes being cool, and eating at the cafeteria being really cool. She’s the equivalent to drinking an ice cold (ice cool) glass of water at 3 a.m. when you live in a desert. If a cool autumn breeze on a sunny day was a person, it would be Ceyda. Matter of fact, not many people know this, but Ceyda actually invented cool, both the temperature and the adjective. Yeah. She’s that cool.”
William Laframboise
Welcome to the next artist spotlight where dancer and designer Ceyda Taştan shares with us her art, design, and fashion inspiration from the Y2K era. As she navigates more avenues of creating and using Trinity Western University (TWU) as much as she can to collaborate, create and learn, she steps further into the realm of design. Steering away from becoming an English-Turkish translator, which comes naturally to her, she realises the efforts necessary to get better at what she loves most: design.
In her bubbly yet grounded nature, a few words Ceyda wants to share with other international students coming into the art field at TWU is to “trust the process. It is going to be overwhelming, but trust the process and ask for help. Use YouTube to learn. Talk to your fellow international students in the same field and have courage.”
Ceyda also champions the importance of relationships. A community that will give you honest feedback on your art is priceless, she advises. Ceyda believes that art is meant to be shared, and in order to find the courage to share your art, encouragement and feedback from peers, family, and friends is vital. She reminds us to take advantage of our courses here at TWU especially in receiving valuable feedback from other gifted peers.
A conversation with Ceyda Taştan, third-year Media and Communications major in the Media Stream.
MH: Ceyda, can you start by telling us more about where you are from and how you came to Trinity Western University?
CT: Oh my goodness, yes, my favourite story. So like I said, I’m from Istanbul, Turkey. Recently, the country changed [its] name to Türkiye. My country is a bridge between the two continents of Europe and Asia with a rich Christian history …it used to be called Constantinople, [it was] the capital of the Roman Empire. Türkiye is also where Noah’s Ark and Paul’s missionary journeys took place.
MH: Woah, I didn’t know that!
CT: Yes, come visit Türkiye, it has so much to offer. To answer your question, I had no initial thought of coming to [TWU] at all—like, zero. George-Philip [Dumitrascu], who is friends with my family, inspired my family to get me to apply. It was just a random dinner between our two families that changed everything.
MH: Oh, no way! Shout out to George, our esteemed Arts and Culture Editor for Mars’ Hill.
CT: Yes! So then I applied and was accepted with a 100 percent scholarship for my first year, which is what pushed me to move. I didn’t have to worry about the university exam needed to go to uni[versity] in Türkiye. I had been studying for two years for that exam, and then over a conversation at dinner, I was off to study abroad.
MH: Wow, your life just pivoted across the world. Did you know that Media and Communications in the art and design realm was what you wanted to study back then?
CT: Actually, MCOM was my third choice of major. I was initially an English major because back home my goal was to become an English-Turkish translator. In Türkiye, I never thought of doing art because it wasn’t a sustainable option. When I decided I wanted to do art and design, I took ART 181: Visual Foundations I, ART 182: Visual Foundations II, and ART 250: Graphic Design, all at the same time in my second semester. MH: Woah. That’s a lot of process-work courses.
CT: Honestly, I don’t know how I survived; it was design, painting, and drawing all in the same semester. I got A’s in all of them; I don’t know how I did it.
MH: What art classes were you taking when you made the two design pieces featured in this spotlight?
CT: I was taking MCOM 331: Imaging and Illustration Design and MCOM 332: Symbol and Typography Design. They were really similar but different. I did a Y2K inspired poster for that class as well. Josh Hale was my professor and whenever he saw my designs, he always struggled and [said], “okay, I’m an old person, this is too trendy for me. I don't understand, but somehow it works well together.”
MH: [Laughs] That’s amazing.
CT: Yeah, he didn't like it personally, but he told me it worked really well. I did a magazine spread. The fonts I used are my jeans folded. I had a lot of fun writing in jeans.
MH: No way! That’s so sick.
CT: Thank you! It was a pretty fun assignment, honestly. I folded them into letters. That was the assignment—to create a title from a weird material. I decided to do the Kpop group New Jeans and I was like, “let me just write new jeans with jeans!”
MH: So creative! Would you say design is your focus?
CT: I definitely want to go into design. But recently, I’ve been wanting to get into media a lot more: photography and collaging, learning to work with more textures—I don’t like the clean cut, I wanna work with more textures!
“When I’m doing my art and it’s not working, I question what I’m doing, like we all do from time to time. In my relationship with God, He reminds me, ‘I literally brought you through all that chaos to this moment’ and reminds me about the journey and that He brought me across the world for a reason.”
MH: Do you have your own camera for photography?
CT: Yes! I also have my little Kodak pink camera, which is like, so Y2K. I have a Lumix camera for more professional stuff. But with the little pink Kodak, I just love when it’s obvious that you took a photo with an older machine. Again, textures, even with my professional camera …I often go back to edit more grain and texture.
MH: What artists have inspired your design work?
CT: I included David Carson in my artist spotlight for the poster I made. He mostly works with typography; I learned about him in my Imaging and Illustration class. His graphic design was mostly popular in the 1990’s, so he’s a Y2K dude. His art style is very chaotic; it takes the viewer a second to figure out what’s going on, and I like that aspect of it, honestly. I just love it.
MH: Now that you’ve shown me some of his work, it’s giving collage and lots of layering.
CT: Yes! He talks about the importance of the audience and allowing the viewer to find their own way. The art piece is the viewer’s own journey, in a sense. He likes making things not-so-obvious, and he’s really asking the viewer, “How are you having your own addition to this art piece?” I want to incorporate that into my style. I love creating that “Oh!” moment that comes alive in the little details—to lure the viewer in. David Carson definitely has helped me become more comfortable in creating intentionally-chaotic visually-pleasing art.
MH: Inspiring! Let’s talk about your fashion inspiration; I’ve seen you wear really fun Y2K-inspired outfits over the past semesters.
CT: I think the main reason my style changed was because of the thrifting culture here in Canada. My fashion style used to be quite different. Back home, people would view second-hand clothes as dirty, like, “why would you wear someone else”s clothes?” But thrifting culture here is a lot more widespread. I realised that I can actually find stuff that I like for cheaper and actually dress how I want. I also love using Pinterest to explore different styles and to draw inspiration, even if I’m not wearing that exact outfit—just asking myself, “okay, what is my style?”
MH: What would you describe your style as?
CT: I mean, I have a bunch of outfit inspo boards, so I feel like it is a bunch of different stuff. I love earth tones so much. If I had to put words to it, I’d probably say fairy grunge. It’s the browns, the greens, and jeans. So like, Y2K earth tones.
MH: When you think of Y2K, what do you think of, personally?
CT: The bright colours, lots of overlapping and no structure necessarily, but it all still looks uniform. That’s what I love about Y2K design styles—the uniform in the chaos. When I go into Pinterest Y2K design inspo, I instantly feel like, “Let’s go! This is what I want to create.”
MH: That’s cool. So, Y2K was helpful in helping you identify your own art style?.
CT: Yes, it’s the style I’m drawn to most. A lot of the work I’ve done so far has been…an intuitive layering, I guess you could say. That’s how I came up with this poster. I was initially going to have one photo of William, but then I accidentally duplicated it and started playing with the colour and doing random stuff in the swatches. I rarely have a plan going into…my designs, honestly.
MH: It’s very energetic and playful when I look at your art pieces, very Y2K. Do you have any favourite music from this era?
CT: I love 2000s pop so much! I am obsessed with Britney especially. I watch her music videos and I see how she dresses—the low rise jeans and the tiny tops—the way she dances and everything. 2000s Britney would be my number one. Number two? Christina Aguilera. All her fashion back then was insane. Her blonde hair with the dark black stripes, it’s just amazing.
MH: So fun! On another note, is there any spiritual element that comes into play for you while creating?
CT: With my art, I definitely think God helped me find my path because I was like “What do I do?” [as] I was preparing for the exam of my life. He brought me here and essentially said, “actually, you’re going to do some art.” So I definitely give it all to Him…trusting that He brought me here. When I’m doing my art and it’s not working, I question what I’m doing, like we all do from time to time. In my relationship with God, He reminds me, “I literally brought you through all that chaos to this moment” and reminds me about the journey and that He brought me across the world for a reason. He constantly reminds me to trust in my art and what I’m doing. Because often, I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing.
MH: I love that; the importance of reflecting on He who has brought you here to this moment is so often overlooked.
CT: Yes, and I mean, He created me, He created this brain, this creative brain, to do amazing things. I wouldn’t have done it without Him. It’s all [because of] Him, honestly.
MH: Thank you so much for being so real with us, Ceyda!