“When people talk about my illustrations, they often say they’re frightening or gruesome,” says Piru, a Korean illustrator in Seoul. “Maybe that’s because the characters have blank expressions, and parts of the bodies are drawn as bones.”
A ribcage over a multicolored heart, a torso half-hidden in ghostly trees: despite her gruesome subjects, she uses a soft palette, often creating a strong visual dissonance.
“当人们谈论我的插画，会说它们是可怕的、令人毛骨悚然的。这么说的理由可能是画中的人物都没有表情，而且部分躯体被画成了骨头。”来自韩国首尔的插画师 PIRU，这样说起人们对她插画的评价。
悬挂在多彩心脏上的胸廓、鬼魅树影里隐约的胴体——PIRU 的画虽然风格诡谲，用色却很清新，时常给人以一种强烈的视觉反差。
Piru has been drawing since she was a child, but she didn’t formally launch her career as an illustrator until 2016. In the past she disliked expressing negative feelings, but in illustration she eventually found an outlet for her emotions. “I used to think showing my negative side was shameful,” she says. “But now I’ve learned that if your negative feelings don’t get an external release, things usually get much worse.”
The characters in her illustrations seem to wear deadened expressions, as though they’ve experienced some unimaginable grief. But Piru says they’re overcoming sorrow in their own way. She depicts their process of silently bearing pain and waiting for it to pass. “In life, people feel different feelings differently,” she explains. Her pictures show her fragile, struggling inner world, but they also provide a refuge, a place for healing. “I look forward to finding calm, with the passage of time, even though I also know that new sorrows might arrive. If you let time settle things and patiently endure, the clouds will part once more.”
虽然从小喜欢画画，但 PIRU 正式开始插画生涯是 2016 年。以前不喜欢暴露负面情绪的她，在工作后慢慢找到了通过插画来宣泄感情的方法，“以前我觉得展现负能量的一面很羞耻，但之后我发现如果内心的负面情绪没有向外得到释放，事情往往会变得更糟。”
乍一看，插画中的人物表情像是心如死灰，经历着难以想象的铭心痛苦，但 PIRU 说，他们是在以自己的方式去克服战胜这种苦难，她是在描绘这种静静忍受并等待痛苦过去的过程。“人们各自感受着不一样的感受在生活。 ” 她说，画面表现出她脆弱挣扎的内心世界，却也像提供了一处避难所，能让人从中得到治愈。“虽然期待随着时间的流逝之后可以得到平静，但我也知道还会有其他痛苦到来。只是一切都需要时间的沉淀，慢慢熬过去，一定会有云开雾散的那一刻吧。”
