| MEETING POINT  DIEFFENBACHIA
Leaves on the branch are alone while falling on the ground. Now, they have met
an art lover who brings an end to their loneliness: Nick Merdenyan…
Getting all delicacies of the calligraphy and ornamentation embroidered on dry
leaves, he has blown life again to them…
Man wants to touch the green, to have a contact with the green. Green is the
nature, life, and vivacity…
We stare at the leaves of the trees so that they can give us some of their
energies, because green leaves represent the energy of continuity.
When we see that the leaves are turning yellow and fading, sadness conquers
our inner world…
Green itself is the idea. It is the future idea… the development idea… and Nick Merdenyan has found the energy of continuity in
leaves. So to speak, he never wants that the leaves falling off their branch
with a warm breeze of the wind go to extinction. He revitalizes drying, fading
leaves with his ideas and designs… Nick Merdenyan has such a powerful
passion for green, integrating with art, that he explored it with a feeling
appearing in his inner world even while he was not aware of it …
Nick Merdenyan, who has been working as the Grand Bazaar tradesman since 1968, breaks off the faded leaves of a houseplant gifted for the baptism ceremony of
his son, with a suddenly felt desire, and stores them among book pages. Do not
think that he has had this passion for years. Nick says that it was a sudden
desire he felt at that moment, at that minute. After a year or two, he sees
those two leaves that it had put among the book pages by chance while making a
research on a subject in his private library. Those silky leaves in front of
him awaken a feeling of excitement in Merdenyan, view of those silky dried
leaves in front of him sticks in his mind with an excitement the reason of
which he doesn’t know well. He talks about the dried leaves in his house
with a calligraphy master who came to his neighbor’s shop in the Grand
Bazaar.
He asks that calligraphy master, who is known for its works on different
materials, if he can work on leaves as well. Then they start to discuss what
can be done on dried leaves. While discussing what and how it can be done, the
idea of applying the art of calligraphy to dried leaves. After a long
interval, the calligraphy master embroiders the tugra (sultan’s signature)
of Suleyman the Magnificent on one of the leaves, and Yunus Emre’s epigram
“Love who loves you” on the other with Cufic letters, and brings the
leaves to Nick Merdenyan. The same day an American couple sees the works,
likes a lot, and buys them. “I can never forget the expression, the
confusion on the face of that American lady. When tugra of Suleyman the
Magnificent, with the beauty of which I was not satisfied yet, was sold that
day, thus the adventure has started”, says Nick Merdenyan.
Nick Merdenyan is a living example of that the life is full of chance events.
Is not the impact of chances on human’s life the most interesting part of
this artistic story of revitalization that started with his son’s baptism
ceremony, developed in the Grand Bazaar, and now has been continuing in
greenhouses? Nick Merdenyan carries out a work no example of which has ever
seen in any where on the earth.
He has put his works that arouse admiration of those who have seen them within
frameworks. “ Merdenyan states that his works gain more an more popularity
in our country and abroad each day, and that many of his customers buy them
for collection purposes.
Nick Merdenyan performs his initial works by making experiments on leaves.
Merdenyan gets the best results from Dieffenbachia and Caladium leaves. “As
Dieffenbachia and Caladium that I use do not grow in our country, I was
importing them from Holland. Unfortunately, Holland has discontinued the
production of the Dieffenbachia sort I used due to some economic reasons. As a
result of intense researches I made, now I’ve been obtaining the leaves in
the quality I need from a greenhouse in Florida.
”When the work will be started, the leaves that are appropriate for the
subject are chosen. These subjects are generally chosen from three great
religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Attention is paid that the
subjects are love, peace, and tolerance messages from past to our day. Then
the leaves are dried until their saps are removed, through a great many of
pains and special methods. Never think that this long-term procedure is just a
method of “store-and-look-occasionally”. Maybe the most important part of
the work is to dry the leaves correctly.
Arrival of the leaves, their drying phases… Merdenyan carries out all these
works in his home. “Throughout the whole year, I change the places where
they lie in my house at least twice a week. It is very exciting to watch their
drying phases, because when each one of them wakes up again, they will be
guests in homes in various countries of the world, and continue to disseminate
positive energy to the place where they are and to the people there, just like
in their first lives.
To tell the truth, the magic world of leaves influences everyone. Therefore,
it is not difficult to guess that Merdenyan has customers from every country.
“Some of them find me through my internet website, some by chance, and some
others through their friends who know me. It’s really great to share the
tolerance and common cultures of three great religions with my customers. This
enhances my love to my works”, says Merdenyan, and we find out that he has
many subscribed customers. Stating that they call at his shop at least once a
month, he says proudly that Merdenyan’s customers include Hillary Clinton,
Laura Bush, and many celebrated families.
Some of my customers buy our works saying that they make a collection. We
started our works with the Islamic culture, then added the Christian and
Judaic cultures to our collection. It’s a very nice feeling for me to use in
our works the beautiful messages of various cultures, share them with peoples
of our country and from all over the world, feel the same excitement with
them, and to see that, from time to time, they prefer and buy works related to
other cultures but their own, showing a great tolerance.
We hope that this star that shines among our traditional arts, which have
disappeared one by one, is handed down to next generations with love. But you
should start first... Life is full of chances… One day you happen to pass
Merdenyan’s shop in the Grand Bazaar maybe, and you too want to have dreams
about the chances of life while looking at a leaf that you hung on the wall of
your house…
In such a time when the mass production have risen to the highest point in the
heavens, when the handwork has begun to be forgotten, when the winds of war
blows everywhere, we say that may never end the love of Nick Merdenyan who
embroiders love, peace and friendship messages painstakingly on dried leaves.
Nick
Merdenyan
Nickscalligraphy corner
Kapalýçarþý içbedesten #24
34440
Istanbul-Turkey
phone&fax: 0212-5135473
GSM: 0532,3147004
onnikm@usa.net
www.yapraklarinefendisi.com
www.lordoftheleaves.com
www.nickscalligraphy.com
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