✶ Creating My Own Table
An Interview with Studio Kōlea Artist Ezgi Iraz
(From the series “Resting in Mu‘umu‘u”)
Photography by Megumi Kean, First Friday Hale’iwa 2025
Q: What inspired your series, Resting in Mu‘umu‘u?
It began with Anne of Green Gables. I loved how Anne dreamed inside her small attic room, with one flower and one brown dress — she reminded me that imagination can survive anything.
When I moved to Hawai‘i, I saw the mu‘umu‘u and learned how it carries the story of Hawaiian women — resistance, beauty, and freedom. For me, it became a symbol of rest, of honoring women who have carried too much.
In Turkic culture, we say “Heaven lies beneath the feet of a mother.” I paint to remember that truth — that women deserve peace, softness, and rest, not exhaustion disguised as strength.
Photography by Megumi Kean, First Friday Hale’iwa 2025
Q: You’ve mentioned rejection from Hawai‘i’s art institutions — how did that shape you?
I applied everywhere — museums, trusts, orchestras, — and kept hearing no. I had global awards and years at LEGO’s design base in Denmark, but here, I was just “a mother without an American degree.”
So I stopped asking for a seat and built my own table.
I founded Studio Kōlea for artists who feel invisible, tired, or out of place.
And honestly — I’m doing all this to make my inner child happy,
because that little brown girl with big hair always wanted to be an artist.
May 1991, Ezgi Iraz’s first reward from a painting competition
Photography by Megumi Kean, First Friday Hale’iwa 2025
Q: What did those rejections teach you?
That rejection is redirection.
Hawai‘i is beautiful but heavy — people are surviving, not always connecting. Still, I’ve met incredible locals who remind me that aloha is alive. My art speaks to that complexity — the longing to belong, to rest, to support without judgement.
Q: Why the name Studio Kōlea?
The kōlea bird migrates between Hawai‘i and Siberia — the same region my Turkic ancestors came from. It’s my mirror: a traveler between worlds.
So the studio became a bridge — between Altai and Ka‘ala, between stories, cultures, and hearts.
As Rumi said, “Come, come, whoever you are.” That’s our philosophy.
Photography by Megumi Kean, First Friday Hale’iwa 2025
Q: What message do you hope your work gives?
Rest is not laziness — it’s power.
To every woman of color, every immigrant artist, every creative who feels unseen — I see you. You deserve to rest, to create without permission, and to be celebrated just for existing.
The Kōlea Circle
A creative collective for immigrant, indigenous, and local artists of Hawai‘i.
We’re gathering the ones who never quite fit in —
the artists who’ve been told no too many times,
the ones who are tired, tender, and still dreaming.
If you’ve been searching for a community that feels like home —
where collaboration replaces competition and stories take flight —
this is your invitation.
Q: What’s next for you?
On October 21, under the New Moon in Libra, I’ll open Resting in Mu‘umu‘u for online sale — a new chapter for me, and hopefully, for everyone who sees themselves in these stories.