Serdar Leblebici’s (SL) workshop, located in the centre of Izmir, is not just a workshop but also a shelter and a temple. He lives his art deep inside in the world he has created for himself in this workshop. I had the opportunity to comprehend some from SL’s famous work, the “Trunks” (“Gövdeler”) series. In these paintings, the sky, land, and sea are one, and illustrated with various synthesis, in this tense environment, in a way that is both abstract and concrete. In terms of time, the paintings reflect “the past tense,” “the past perfect tense,” simple present, present, and the future; in other words, they are both stationary and ongoing. The trunks carry the elegance of “El Greco,” and generally portrayed as “silhouettes” gives them an aura of mystery. While leaves, flowers, and fruits are “goers,” roots and trunks are stable; you will feel this power in the trunks illustrated in the paintings. It is as if these trunks form a connection between the land and the sky, and they are experiencing all the seasons in the same time but in different locations. From time to time, you witness the human body being compared to them as a silhouette among them. Temples, mansions, and bridge ruins, belonging to the past, whisper from the depths of the pictures like honourable ghosts. The common pattern of all of the paintings is “fish,” which live in every season and every depth, go in and out of the most secluded places, and sweep through or carelessly speed through the places that are reflected with mysterious illustrations of the dreams and reality throughout time. This fish is a “universe explorer,” and in my eyes is SL himself, who has deemed the universe he has created and continues to create as his open-ended abode. The eyes of the fish are not just an “optical device” but are a sparkling extension of the brain that sees the smallest of details and can describe them without error and without missing anything out. I do not believe that these eyes can miss any beauty. In terms of literacy, the fish is like the “omniscient voice” that is present everywhere at all times, describes, knows, and sees everything that is both abstract and concrete; and its eyes which scans, selects, meticulously sees, and shows the views captured from the image universe are like abiding glance. Sezer AYKAN MAC, MVAM( MAC: Master of Arts Criticism, MVAM: Master of Visual Arts Management ) 5 October 2006 / Izmir