Welcome to so ece!

Hi, I am Ece Yildirok, owner of so ece.

so ece is the baby of crushed dreams and a pandemic. 

I know this sounds backwards but here is what happened: 

I am a festival manager of twenty years who migrated to Los Angeles from Turkey about a decade ago. After years of typical immigrant struggles, misfortunes, stubbornness and hard-work, I got my dream job and started on March 2nd, 2020. One week later a global pandemic was declared and I got laid off with no hope of going back or finding a job in my profession anywhere else as a large-scale event producer. 

When the lockdown began, I found solace in painting. I mean, frantic, neurotic, non-stop painting. I was mostly coping with the sense of loss of my career and the feeling of unknown. As a kid I was very interested and good at art. Like many I was encouraged to pursue more "stable" careers by my parents and this became a long forgotten passion. With the sensory deprivation the COVID19 lock down brought, I connected with my inner world in a way I was not able to do before. The more I painted the more I fell in love with painting (or remembered my love for painting) and started selling my work. More and more people asked to purchase my art and I decided to open shop. Now museum quality, giclée prints of my art work is available at www.so-ece.com.

At so ece, I am telling stories and feelings that do not exclusively belong to or need to be validated by any class, group, institution, or tradition. If I create something and that resonates with one person, we are connected and I am happy. We are made to believe we are not good enough and my main motive is to portray the beauty of the ordinary. In my art, I find myself reflecting concepts of self-acceptance, inner peace, self-actualization and female empowerment as well as elements of my bi-cultural background as a Turkish artist living in Los Angeles. 

Considering all, it is fair to say my style is art brut, but please don’t wait for me to die to check out my art. Welcome to so ece!