PASSION FOR ART AND HER JOY IN PAINTING

By Sayna Behkar

Before starting to explain my journey, I want to introduce myself briefly.

I’m Sayna Behkar, growing up in a small family in the city of Tabriz in Iran. My mother is a painter, and my father and sister are dentists. So, I guess it’s not hard to estimate how the combination of art and dentistry carved out my personality and who I am today.

When I was an eight-year-old little girl, I started learning Piano. At that time, for me, learning piano was nothing but memorizing a bunch of theoretical structures, notes, and practicing them as much as one could. I also remember how my teacher tried to make me more passionate about Piano and bought me different little gifts to motivate me more for practice. So, yes, I continued learning Piano, but I hadn’t understood what it really meant for my soul and me until the day I, myself, felt that I wanted to go and sit in front of that Piano, close my eyes, and play what I want, in a way that I wish to, without anyone or any teacher around. But before that day came, at the age of 14, I got tired of it and stopped playing because I didn’t even know what I was trying for.

When I was 16, I looked at the people and the world around me and realized that it wasn’t actually the fairytale of my imagination in which I was living. Trust, love, value, friendship, and time weren’t something to freely give to anyone you see, meet, or even think you know. To be honest, I didn’t have any idea of what to do with all those feelings. I just had myself and my Piano to hide behind and let it dive deep into my soul to heal all those broken pieces. So, that was when I restarted practicing Piano by myself.

At that time, it was a little bit scary and hard for me to comprehend this fact of life, but shortly after that, I felt something in my heart that pushed me to myself and made me believe that I already had a powerful soul inside myself that could guide me to the best and never leave me in the lurch.

That was a turning point for me when I firmly promised myself to do as much as I could to be the best version of myself and believed that I was on my own to create a big future and great life for myself.

Soon afterward, I got admission to Ankara University in the field of dentistry and moved to Ankara. Shortly after this interesting change, my journey converted itself to an even more unexpected way.

After finishing my first semester, the spread of COVID-19 infection started to increase uncontrollably all over the world. I had been in a student dormitory until when the virus shut down the world, and the situation forced me to stay in a hotel, managed by that dormitory’s manager, for more than 6 months. Everything was in order in the first months, but 3 months later, locking down in a small room, loneliness, stress, uncertainty of the situation, and healthcare issues all conspire to make me feel at my wits’ end.

All my friends in Ankara were back in their hometowns and countries. I even remembered the day that I was walking outside alone, thinking of catching someone in the middle of the road to be able to have a face-to-face communication because all I did was video calling with my family and friends in Iran.

Before moving to Turkey, I had learned some techniques of oil painting from my mother. So, at that time, I was thinking of doing some work related to my field and art, as well. I did some research on the Internet, and I got my first idea from various websites. After sharing my new works on social media, I got so much attention worldwide and did some further work based on my own designs and patterns.

Mostly, I tried to choose some complicated patterns which might take my time as long as possible because the days were too long to survive. So, I spared more than 5 hours of the day for painting, and that was the only way to escape from daily stress and quarantines. And after a while, I started a business with my paintings and sold them all over the world to dental clinics, dentists, doctors, and students.

And YES! Every cloud has a silver lining. Quarantine and COVID-19 paved the way for me to start my own job while studying, and painting and music were actually my only remedies for enduring all the difficulties that I faced.

About the author: https://linktr.ee/saynabehkar saynabehkar@gmail.com

Studying in Ankara University Faculty of Dentistry, I started my painting business on social media where everyone can have their order by there. Now, I still continue my studies and follow my passion in any other fields without any hesitation. In the journey of my life, I’d like to reach higher levels of my education, work harder, and improve my social skills as much as possible, beside my field of study. Only in this way, I know that where I have to go in the middle of a hectic day to recover myself! Becoming a successful woman in her dental career and a role model in other activities and social life is what I definitely crave for, and I can proudly say that I'm getting closer to that day by day.

Her Instagram account: @sayna.r.t