Exclusive Interview With Lin Gökshin, 3rd Prize Winner of the Digital Art Award, 2025 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize by Samantha Dexter
One of the most magical things about art is when you can see the raw emotion contained within the canvas. Anyone can paint, but having the power to paint such emotional depth is something special. Digital Art Prize winner Lin Gökshin is the most wonderful example of this raw creative power. Each brush strokes contain a sliver of a memory. Emotions burst out onto the canvas, shining bright like stars populating the night sky. Her body of works has all the vulnerabilities of private thoughts doodled in a graffitied, sticker bombed sketchbook amplified and polished with creative compositions, vivid colour palettes and an incredible understanding for the human condition.
Hailing from Türkiye, Lin Gökshin is an artist who uses a variety of mediums to create works that focus on both whimsical and eerie depictions of loss, grief and the human condition. Her approach to her craft allows for a unique mixed media style as she dabbles in mediums including watercolour, Copic makers, oil pastels alongside painting digitally. In 2025, Lin would enter into the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize where she would win herself the 3rd Prize in the Digital Art Award category with her piece “Alabörü”, which depicts a shaman of ancient times, lost without a trace and who’s now on a journey to retrieve what was lost through the guidance of shadows in the cold winter night.
“Having a grounded ability to dream and escape the harsh realities of life, even for a bit, is the most rewarding.”
Interview with Lin Gökshin
First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on your success in the Beautiful Bizarre 2025 Art Prize! What was running through your mind when you discovered the news of your success?
Quite honestly, the announcement came at a time where I was not able to quite acknowledge or comprehend the accomplishment itself. I was fighting to stay afloat, it didn’t occur to me how delighted I actually was until after I stabilised with medical assistance and pain relief program.
I didn’t plan or entertain the possibility of getting to the finals of Digital Category submissions, let alone that I could win anything at all. It was a very bizarre coincidence that I happened to run into the post regarding the last call to submit artworks and it felt right, for some reason. I’m glad I did and I hope to be more thoroughly prepared for the next one instead of feeling devastatingly lost and lacking in more ways than one.
Why did you enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
As I mentioned, it eerily felt right in the moment, that’s what I am able to tell. I have been asked about submitting one of my very poorly made artworks when I was a lot younger, in my teens, which felt like blatant insanity on my end to even expect or hope that I could accomplish something of this nature.
I wanted to try with an artwork I was comfortable losing with than an artwork I thought I could rely on to take me somewhere—I truthfully never expected this.
As to why specifically the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize— It’s familiar and honestly I always felt like a valued artist by the Beautiful Bizarre team. Perhaps a bit too sentimental for the industry in this day and age but it’s always more exciting and encouraging to know and feel you are valued as an artist and as a living, breathing being which is unfortunately rare to come by with the rise of AI and rampant consumerism.
What do you feel you have gained from this experience?
It provided aid and relief to be more confident in my ability and skill in storytelling and foundational creative techniques as well. I was in a place of doubt as I was unable to recognise myself and my purpose in every aspect while my health significantly dipped rapidly. It helped me see a glimpse of what I used to be and why I even pursued art to begin with. It enlightened me in a way that pretty much provided some clarity about what I wanted to do.
Aside from that, having an opportunity to see all these wonderful artworks of so many different artists flooded my head and mostly my heart with a sense of connection that I overlooked for the past year or so— Or perhaps had become numb to. It’s amazing how things we witness, feel and communicate day to day can suddenly make the most difference at the right time in right conditions.
Human connection through shared expression regarding running in circles of universal feelings and experiences has always been something I admired. We are people and people have always been what we are now, especially in the arts and self-expression. However silly or eccentric we are, we simply take different shapes and evolve, then adapt. However, the foundation of our behaviour, essence and existence remain the same.
That is connection. That is the closest you can get to something bigger than our fleeting lives.
I’d love to learn more about “Alabörü” and what inspired you to paint this ancient shaman. Can you tell me a bit about how this piece came to life and what it means to you?
Starting with the title itself, “Al” in modern Turkish specifically spoken in Eurasia/Anatolia means red, vibrant, mixed in colour value and tone. We are ethnically quite the mixture! Our day to day language has a lot of Farsi influence, sometimes Latin, Armenian, Pontic Greek as well. While ‘Al’ usually means a vibrant, warm crimson color, it can also mean ‘to take’ and even used to name deceitful nature.
“Börü/Böri” on the other hand means ‘wolf’, which is a prominent animal and mythological figure in Turkic and Mongolic beliefs. Often, wolves are depicted as a source of guiding wisdom, a helping hand to change a dead-end fate. “Alabörü” roughly translates to the “Crimson Wolf” or “Wolf of Deceit”, which is entirely up to interpretation!
As for my personal take on this character I created — quite frankly to cope with some heavy emotions — “The Wolf of Deceit” is a seer with great gift and potential. However, upon great loss and mourning, she lost her way. She lost herself. The grief consumed every ounce of her being and left only vengeance. Under the guise of sadness and agonising emotion, she torments not only herself but those around her. It’s also up to interpretation whether she is conscious of it or simply losing her grip and senses to the absence of a loved one. It’s madness disguised as love with no place to be put, no stop nor relief of devastating reality.
Such sincere and unconditional love comes with the cost of loss and thus, pain. It’s important for the grieving to learn the art of co-existence. After all, life is an accumulation of contradictory realities and nuance. The push and pull of delightful joy and devastation, horrors of existence; the will to live and motivation to learn while questioning purpose and reason.
“Alabörü“, as a concept and a character, is the symbolism of dread, vengeance, deceit and pursuit of permanence— All in the name of love.
I understand that your art focuses on primarily whimsical and eerie depictions of grief and loss, what draws you to these themes and how do you like to incorporate whimsy into these more sober topics?
Life is quite whimsical and eerie at the very same time in many ways, we’ve simply become accustomed to normalising the most fascinating and equally terrifying concepts.
I was more focused on detachment and escapism prior to the loss of my grandfather who raised me and compensated for every doubt and fear surrounding my social and emotional development. He was my mother, father and best friend all in one. He taught me how to read, write, solve puzzles and tell stories. However, most importantly, he showed me the wonders of drawing, creating, expressing things that cannot be said in words – where language fails, imagination that spilled onto the papers, across the walls and desks picked me up.
After my near death experiences upon being admitted to the hospital on 4th of September, 2012, aged 11 with a disease so relentless.. I lost myself. Treatments were beyond my comprehension of pain at the time. From several procedures ranging from jugular catheter placement to dialysis and plasmapheresis with countless excruciatingly painful procedures I endured, pushing through amid uncertainty, I lost myself.
I couldn’t recognize myself, nor could my parents or former friends. I was lost beyond measure and my grandfather was my compass and a map of stars above that guided me back home, back to myself. He recognised me despite my dying state. Everyday spent with him felt like I had never lost anything and all those bad things never happened to me.
I lost him on the first day of 2023 to an agonizingly long battle against lung cancer.
Grief became a part of who I am and I began to express it outwardly to hold onto everything he left behind. All the things we loved from our folklore and mythology to the midwest movies and whimsical cartoons that sparked child-like wonder, I don’t plan or intentionally build these combinations. They’re manifestations of my childhood, best friend and the infinite love I have for him. Even in death, he was here and he mattered. If loss cannot be escaped, I paint my loved ones into existence.
And as long as I am here, I remember and they are here with me as well. Even now, as I comb through my words, I am always taken aback that I acknowledge he is gone in words— Although it feels as though he never left.
What do you find to be the most rewarding part of your work as an artist?
To defy time and fate. When I’m alone and working on my art, I can be whatever and whoever I want to be. I can choose to be the version of myself that is unfamiliar with pain. I can be healthy, I can be the knight in undefeatable armor and fight against everything I fear and win too. I can see my loved ones, talk to them, tell them all the things left unsaid; see them laugh, see them smile.
Most importantly of all I can look at them and for a moment, see them looking back.
Having a grounded ability to dream and escape the harsh realities of life, even for a bit, is the most rewarding.
Similarly, what do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your work as an artist?
It’s probably having the awareness that I exist outside of my inner world and artworks. A world where I have little to no control and limited options to choose. A world where my mobility and accessibility to simplest things are limited. It feels unfair at times but that is just life and I believe a lot of people would have chosen to escape into their books or worlds they built if they had the opportunity to.
What has been inspiring you lately?
Artworks of Sergio Toppi, specifically those in colour with mixed media techniques. I also really adore the works of Alberto Mielgo and Lois Van Baarle.
Lately, I have also been thoroughly drawn to quite depressing themes in film surrounding end of life and regret such as Hanım (1988) which is an award winning Turkish film I love dearly centred around mortality, loss, grief, isolation and the value of life and above it all, connection through love and compassion.
What do you hope people can take away with them after viewing your work?
Probably that we are not permanent and that no one should take the time they have here for granted while they can indulge in the whimsical and curious and balance out day-to-day duties as well. I also hope it can bring them some comfort if they are struggling with similar issues.
Would you recommend the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and encourage others to enter? If so, why?
Absolutely! It is quite fun to test your limits and push your ability to put together an artwork so intricate. Even if you don’t win, it is a good experience to try and learn. I do acknowledge that not everyone has the means to provide the entry fee and not care about the results but if you have the means to, it can definitely open doors and lead to pleasantly surprising outcomes like this.
What’s next for you? Any exciting projects coming up that you can share a bit about with our readers?
I want to tell stories. That is all I am going to say! It’s been my dream to write stories and illustrate them and hopefully at some point, I can breathe life into my art to see it on the big screen. That is quite far ahead but everything I plan to do in this following year should allow me to have some clarity as to whether I can accomplish said dreams and ambitions or not.