I was born in 1983 into a Mediterranean family and grew up between the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts of Türkiye. I was surrounded by nature, history, craftsmanship, color, and the very particular visual culture of this region. Looking back, I can see how deeply all of this shaped the way I see and create today.

My first language was photography. What began as an early fascination eventually became my profession in Bodrum.

In my younger years, photography was also how I made my living. I photographed weddings and created short wedding films, a period that unexpectedly opened up the world to me. My work took me to new places, introduced me to people from many different countries and cultures, and allowed me to discover extraordinary locations along the way.

There was something very special about being invited into one of the happiest and most intimate days of people’s lives. Observing those moments through my camera, turning them into photographs and short films, and preserving something that would become part of someone else’s memory made me genuinely happy for many years.

From there, my creative world naturally expanded into art direction, event design, and eventually entrepreneurship.

Just before the pandemic, I started an artisan venture called Medalla Club, creating handmade bags and camera straps woven from traditional Anatolian textiles for photographers. It brought together two worlds I already loved: photography and the rich craftsmanship of Anatolia.

Working closely with handmade objects, textiles, artisans, materials, and design became another important part of my creative journey.

Over time, photography started to feel like too defined a boundary for what I wanted to express. I didn’t only want to capture an image anymore. I wanted to build it, paint over it, add to it, cover it, break its rules, and sometimes physically change its surface.

That is how painting entered my life.

Today, I work from my studio in Bodrum, moving freely between acrylic painting, collage, plaster, mirrors and reflective surfaces, found objects, typography, photography, print, and whatever material an idea might ask for.

I don’t begin a work by deciding what style it should belong to. I begin with an idea or a feeling. The material comes afterwards.

Sometimes the result carries traces of Pop or Neo-Pop. Sometimes it moves toward abstraction, assemblage, or something more raw and instinctive. I like vivid colors, layered surfaces, familiar symbols, fragments of popular culture, words, objects, and unexpected materials existing together.

Contrast is something I keep returning to — individuality and belonging, order and chaos, intimacy and collective experience, memory and contemporary culture.

Perhaps that is why I have never wanted to define myself through one visual language.

For me, the canvas is not simply a surface to paint on. It is an open space where different images, materials, memories, colors, and ideas are allowed to meet, collide, and eventually become something new.

I live and work in Bodrum, Türkiye.