Dere's interest in painting and drawing initially grew out of admiration for the impactful works of comic book artists such as J. Buscema and F. Frezatta. In this sense, one can argue that the primary source shaping the artist's visual language is the pop-culture-driven aesthetic of comics.

The artist's piece titled Legendere (1996) is composed of drawings inspired by the Barbarian Conan comic books, alongside early sketches produced during the artist's high school years. Conceived initially in notebook format, the work acquired a new dimension in the artist's solo exhibition, Dere, 'But Now' (2015), where forty drawings selected from this notebook were presented as an installation. In this way, the artist not only makes visible their formative experiences with daily drawing routines and notebook-based production processes but also offers the viewer insights into their inner world and creative motivation.

The title Legendere is a wordplay on 'legend' and the artist's surname 'Dere' hinting at an interplay of concepts that underscore the artist's inner conflicts during the process of exploring the world and the self. Featured within the work are figures of Conan and other warriors, depicted in a minimalist, graphic, and striking yet at times childlike aesthetic. Rendered in monochrome, these war scenes reflect both the desire to create a fantastical realm and a quest for justice. In this way, the piece resonates with the notion of seeking refuge in art. and reveals a tense dynamic between childhood and adulthood in a setting reminiscent of a battlefield.

Nurdan Gürbilek's observation is that it is always too late to return home; neither is the place you come back to the same place that was left nor is the returning person the same one who departed deepens the reading of this work. Interweaving memories and fantasies of childhood with a visual language inspired by comic book aesthetics, Legendere stands as a kind of 'homecoming' narrative. Yet this homecoming simultaneously signifies an escape from childhood while emphasizing the impossibility of returning in a complete sense. In this regard, the work can be read both as an autobiographical reckoning and as a manifesto of an art practice shaped by pop-culture codes.