Born and raised in China, Filiz Li moved to Montreal, Canada in 1999. She studied and worked there for several years.
In 2007, Filiz moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where she is learning and practicing Ebru – the UNESCO-heritage-listed Turkish art of marbling. On Nov. 1, 2014, she became the first and probably the only non-Turk in the world to obtain an Ebru Art Qualification Certificate (ICAZE) from her masters.
Being the deputy chairman of Chinese Women Association in Turkey, Filiz is also involved with related charity projects. She is always willing to work with women and for women.
During what she calls “stay-home-year 2020,” she created several paintings using mixed materials on her Ebru marbled papers to show and express people’s lives and feelings in Turkey under Covid-19. She continues to produce these paintings.
Filiz’s contribution to COVID-19 PAGES is called “Summer.” Here’s the story behind this work:
“Being an Ebru (marbling) artist for 14 years, I did quite some painting experiments using watercolor, acyclic and marker pen etc. on my marbled papers during 2020.
“‘Summer’ was one of them.
“‘Summer’ described a world of pebbles, passed by lots of humans, young and old, women and men.
“I created ‘Summer’ to express my feelings towards the people I loved and lost to Covid-19.
“Nevertheless, life must go on.”
(Ebru is a traditional Turkish art, creating colorful patterns by sprinkling and brushing color pigments onto a pan of water thickened with a starch-like plant powder and then transferring the patterns to paper.)
To visit COVID-19 PAGES: The Influence & Inspiration of Women, click on the following link: https://wellsinternationalfoundation.org/covid-19-pages-exhibit/
