The Turkish born graffiti artist BAKERONER has been turning heads on the western fronts of Europe for quite a while now. Born and raised in Adana, Turkey, since 2018, the artist has been residing in Germany and showing the locals what it means to be multi-disciplined. But the story starts way before 2018. Since 1999 BAKERONER has been on the trigger end of a spray can and to this day still pushes the nozzles of his Montana GOLD and Montana BLACK cans on the regular. As a member of the Stilbaz and Stick Up Kids crews, he has earnt his stripes and proved to onlookers that his hand styles and his letter styles are all linked to the one creative source within his mind.

Crossing borders, crossing disciplines

Being Turkish means the gene of calligraphy flows through his creative DNA. Growing up with flowing hand styles of a traditional sort added to the discipline of tagging that he later picked up and took to new heights. This love of letters transfers from both the analog realm, to the digital. Professionally it is not only his graffiti skills that help pay his bills, but it is also his work experience as a Senior Designer and Creative Director that adds input to the source. His side project of lettering design and modern calligraphy only compliments the development of his clean and mean style. His work as Brush APP Developer also took his hand skills from paper to pixel.

Able to achieve equally as impressive results with a Montana BOLD marker, Montana ACRYLIC marker, Montana spray can or digital brush app, it is his exceptional skills in tagging that inform his impressing letter creation when style writing. So much so that you may have seen his work featured on various Montana Cans merchandise.

In order to understand BAKERONER and his work more, we had a small chat with him to try and understand how his cogs turn. This is what the artist had to say:

MC: As a young boy growing up in Turkey, how were you first connected to or touched by graffiti?

B: I loved playing with letters on my school books since my childhood and there was nothing about graffiti around me during this time. But one day I discovered a graffiti page from Turkish youth magazine, it was created by Turbo. He is the biggest name that brought and spread graffiti throughout Turkey. Then I felt that’s what I need to do. I immediately went to tool store get some cans and started to write on walls.

MC: Were there any pivotal moments that guided you on the path you are now on? Or did it all roll out spontaneously?

B: There was no sharp corners on my story, everything is occurred spontaneously step by step.

MC: Often there are people that help connect the dots to ones path, like keys to locks you can’t otherwise open. Did moving to Germany have this effect on you or with anyone you met, or did you create your own network piece by piece and open the doors with your own keys?

B: I had most of my connections on Internet before Germany, but definitely moving here made everything faster and wider. It is the one of most important countries for the graffiti scene as everyone knows.

MC: Although it should be irrelevant, is having a Turkish background an influencing factor on the making of your graffiti which was traditionally an American practice?

B: I believe mixing your culture and foreign practices is one of the best ways to improve your art and find new disciplines or styles. Also when you compare that Turkish calligraphy culture and American graffiti culture, you can find many similarities about the structures, disciplines, forms etc. Maybe that is the point what makes us more excited to do it.

MC: If it is, do you embrace it or try and distance it from developing your work?

B: Always having it as an advantage!

MC: Are you more inclined to work digitally first and then transfer that to a real-world tool (spray paint markers, walls, canvas, paper, etc..) Or do you work analog to transfer to digital?

B: I do my preparations digitally first, and then implement them on walls, or at least that is the case for the last couple of years. It makes the process faster and easier. But for paper or canvases I still do the traditional way.

MC: How do you feel about your new home in Germany? Is the graffiti and creative industry there a motivation for you?

B: We are living in a quiet place in Remscheid, I really love these kind of places. A bit away from the crowds and stress. The graffiti community is so powerful in Germany, you can find great styles wherever you go. This situation always pushes me to create more, and improve my stuff.

MC: Do you have other interests outside your creative one’s that inform your art making?

B: Since I discovered graffiti, my only interest is graffiti and other forms of creativity came from it.

MC: Do you have a preference, drawing or painting?

Mostly drawing.