Title: Cooling Off

Type: Drawing & Illustration

Medium: Micro-Line Ink Pen, Fine-liner Ink Pen, and White-out on Paper

Sizer: 16”x20”

Ironically, often tragedies contain a hint of comedy. Yet this paradox is what makes things interesting. This piece depicts how society functions nowadays, where a lot of the things we hear or see are unpleasant. Influenced by traditional Ukiyo-e and Japanese artist Toshio Saeki, I want this piece to give off a satirical yet cynical feeling. Eyes are immediately drawn to the corpse sitting in the center. The corpse is surrounded by small patches of grasses and flowers. This symbolizes the birth of something beautiful that might originate from something dreary, as we often only see one side of the story, similar to how the corpse nourished the flowers. Towards the left, we see two creatures that resemble a human and cat hybrid. They are mating, and usually mating during the Spring season would symbolize new beginnings and life yet. It can also signify that individuals manipulate and use each other to create new things. The kid in the front with a stick represents naïve people that have yet to understand cynicism, while the faint figure at the back is a bystander that watches everything unfold as society continues to deteriorate.