Magazine Feature & Interview
I was interviewed and featured in the Creative Collections section of The Collective Magazine. https://www.the-collective-mag.com/post/artist-spotlight-dila-toplusoy An excerpt can be found below:
What inspires you?
Authenticity and interconnectedness… I am deeply inspired by our shared human experience – all the big questions, the late-night conversations, the irreplaceable memories, the life-changing relationships, the unexpected turning points…as well as all the in-between moments, all the ‘little things’ that often seem insignificant, yet are anything but, ‘in the family of things’.*
How does your work reflect your lived experience?
My work does not necessarily reflect my lived experience, yet it is intrinsically linked to and constantly influenced by it, either consciously or subconsciously… In other words, it is intimately fused with lived experience, as well as imagination and contemplation.
What do you wish for your viewers to take from your work?
I hope my work serves as an invitation to pause, to ‘feel’ and remember – the freedom and joy of simply being who and how we are, doing what we are called to do… the core common ground between all of us, from all walks of life, no matter how vastly different we may seem on the surface… and the serenity that stems from being truly present and compassionate towards ourselves and others, towards ‘this pale blue dot we call home.’**
What is your process?
My process almost always begins with a ‘seed’ - an idea, an inspiration, an instinct – which I try to ‘plant’ as soon as it arises within me, either by hand in a notebook, or in the notes section of my phone. After leaving it for a while, I come back to it with a fresh mind, with a curiosity to see where it leads me, a genuine need to understand it on a deeper level, to express it openly and authentically through words – and then I wait, hoping for it to bloom on its own time :)
What is your favourite quote based on writing and writers?
“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.” Ursula K. Le Guin
Have you got any advice for creatives starting out on their journey?
As an emerging creative myself, one of the most profound insights I’ve gained along the way is that our ‘light’ – our innermost potential, our distinctive gifts, our creative life force- is here to be honoured, not hindered. It’s here to be embodied, not dimmed. As Marianne Williamson so eloquently put it, ‘There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.’And so instead of doubting your light; acknowledge its existence and take a step towards it. Walk hand in hand with your light. Remind yourself that this is an essential part of who you are, and that it’s here to flow freely through you, to merge with life… And to be life itself.
* Mary Oliver, **Carl Sagan
