Interest in marbling art increases in US

NEW YORK - Anadolu Agency

Birgül Sevimli is organizing marbling courses at the Bergen Cultural Center in New Jersey for Turkish women. She says the biggest problem is to find a permanent address to work on this art. AA photo

Turkish painting teacher and marbling artist Bingül Sevimli, who is living in New York, has been teaching the Turkish art of marble to Turks and U.S. citizens in various states in the country since 2007. Sevimli is a graduate of Uludağ University Painting Department in the northwestern province of Bursa.

“Actually, people in the U.S. show interest in the art of marbling and want to get involved in it. I see this interest in the festivals I attend. New York is the center of art, but we don’t have a workshop or a gallery here to display our work. To take the advantage of such interest, it is very urgent for us to have an art center for the promotion of this art,” she said.

Sevimli said she started marbling and its promotional activities in the U.S. when one of her friends saw the marbling on the wall of her house and asked her “why don’t you do this here?”

“I have organized courses with the proposals of many universities, primary schools and festivals, and saw the art of marbling drew too much interest. American children especially love this art very much. Playing both with water and colors make them very happy,” she said.

Sevimli said people from various nations like Japan, China and Africa were also interested in marbling. “Our goal is to keep this interest. This is why we need a workshop and a gallery.”

Art of love and patience

Sevimli is currently organizing marbling courses at the Bergen Cultural Center in New Jersey for Turkish women. “We are away from home here. This art is like therapy for them,” she said, adding that marbling is an art of love and patience.

“This is a very good occupation for unemployed Turkish women. And the employed ones take free time from their job with this art. At the same time, there are difficulties of life. They become relieved with this art. Many stress-based diseases appear in the U.S., where life is progressing too fast. The art of marbling is a kind of therapy. It has positive impacts on human health. It teaches you to learn to bear the conditions under which you live.”

Sevimli said she has received plaques and awards from various institutions for her work on the art of marbling. If necessary conditions are provided, this art will be very popular in the U.S. within a short time and contribute to the promotion of Turkish culture and other handicrafts there, said Sevimli.
She said their biggest problem was to find a permanent address where they would be able to work on this art. “But the Bergen Mosque and Cultural Center opened its doors to us,” she said, adding they would open an exhibit when the course term is finished.

She said she was planning to combine marbling and Christmas decorations to draw interest of art lovers in the country. “The Christmas tree figure that I created in the latest exhibition was the center of interest.

Sevimli noted that art teachers in schools, where she visits, included the art of marbling in their syllabus, adding, “An art teacher is still receiving marbling classes from me to teach her own students. Within the scope of a five-day program around New Jersey area, we will work with 50 primary school students. This means 250 children will be marbling in the end of five days. It is very important to support such activities to show Turkish culture abroad. All ethnic societies compete against each other to promote their own culture. They receive so much support. I hope we will have chance to get the same opportunities one day, because it is also important for Turkish children here to know their own culture.”