Instructors:
Deniz Öktem Bektaş
Deniz Öktem Bektaş was born in Holland in 1976. She graduated from ‘İmam-Hatip’ high school in Istanbul in 1994. After completing her studies at the Department of English Literature at Boğaziçi University, she continued her graduate work at Georgetown University in the U.S.A. While working on her masters at the Department of Communication, Culture and Technology, she met Mohamed Zakariya with whom she started calligraphy lessons in riq’a and naskh. Coming back to Turkey at the end of 2002, she continued to take calligraphy lessons with Hasan Çelebi and Davut Bektaş in the scripts of riq’a, naskh and thuluth. In 2007, she obtained her ijaza in the naskh and thuluth scripts. She received encouragement awards in naskh at the 7th International Calligraphy Competition organized by IRCICA in 2007 and at the Calligraphy Biennial in Sharjah in 2008. In the national calligraphy competition conducted by the Presidency of Religious Affairs of Turkey (2015), she received 3rd prize in writing several pages from the Qur’an in the script of naskh. Mrs. Öktem has participated in exhibitions in Turkey and internationally, and continues her work alongside her husband, Davut Bektaş, in their studio in Istanbul.
Website: https://www.hattatdenizbektas.com/
Elinor Aishah Holland
Her passion and enthusiasm for calligraphy began during a visit to Istanbul as a teenager. Very attracted to Arabic letterforms, but finding the study of this art difficult here in the US, she discovered the NY Society of Scribes and undertook an education in Latin lettering.
Specializing in Italic and Copperplate, Holland embraced all aspects of freelance calligraphy work, including invitation design and event work, teaching and exhibiting. Eventually Holland found master scribe Mohamed Zakariya and began the study of Arabic script.
After years of study and many trips to Istanbul, Holland received the Icazet, or calligraphic certification (for Thuluth and Naskh styles) in Arabic script in 2013. As a freelance lettering artist in Latin and Arabic scripts, her work includes exhibiting, teaching, doing commercial and commission work.
Clients include the Smithsonian Institute, The NY Public Library, Clinton Global Initiative, NY Society of Scribes, Long Island University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the US Department of State.
Read our blog about Elinor
Laurelie Rae
Laurelie Rae is an artist, author, and educator. She has been practicing art in Istanbul since 2014. Rae holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. And holds two master's degrees – one from U.K.'s Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts specializing in traditional Iznik ceramics and another in Visual Arts from Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey.
Rae's areas of interest are Islamic ceramics, drawing, and illustration. She is the author of "Islamic Art & Architecture: Memories of Seljuk & Ottoman Masterpieces.” She is currently working on her second book.
For information about Laurelie’s work, please visit her Instagram
Nagihan Seymour
Nagihan Seymour is a Turkish Illumination (Tezhip) artist based in the U.K.
Nagihan has a background in Materials Engineering. She studied with Turkish illumination and calligraphy master Hanifi Dursun. Nagihan has created her unique style by merging classical geometric designs with traditional illumination.
She exhibits and teaches in the UK and internationally, and has won accolades for her work.
For more information on Nagihan’s work, please visit her Instagram
Lubna Zahid
Lubna Zahid is a classically trained fine artist. After beginning her career as an artist in Pakistan, Lubna immigrated to the United States in 2000. Typographic elements in her works rely heavily on the progressive post-colonial movements in the Muslim world in the 20th century. The philosophical works of thinkers like Rumi, Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz shaped her generation and their ideas are evident in her pieces.
Strongly influenced by contemporary and classical calligraphy in Urdu, Arabic and Persian, her pieces include texts in these languages. Lubna received calligraphy and illumination training by master calligrapher Abbas Baghdadi. She experiments with bold renditions of Islamic decorative forms such as the Shamsas. Her work is inflected deeply by the works of masters like Sadequain, Dulac, Klimt and Kahlo. She expresses herself in a variety of media including transparent watercolor, gouache, graphite, charcoal, ink, acrylics and clay.
Lubna has exhibited her work in the United States and in Pakistan. She teaches classes, workshops and seminars on art and art history in various venues including the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries. She lives in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.
Lubna’s work can be viewed on her website: www.LubnaZahid.com or Instagram account: @LubnaZahidArt
Read out blog about Lubna