With hands tucked behind her head, a young girl lounges inside a pitted avocado half. Her partner in crime—on the other side of the frame—holds the pit like a basketball above his head, almost as if he’s ready to go for a free throw. Between them, a row of delicious avocado slices is nestled atop a warm bed of toast. The illustrations of Dana Hong are often just as simple as this one, but this simplicity is precisely what makes them so endearing. Using vivid colors and crisp lines, the Korean artist conjures idyllic worlds zested with a child-like sense of playfulness and joy.
她，双手垫着后脑勺，背靠着巨型牛油果豆袋，她就这么舒舒服服地躺着休息；他，手举着牛油果核，就像准备扣篮一样，试图抛掷果核。横亘图片中间的，恰恰是一片温热的烤面包，涂满了切片牛油果。
如果是第一次看 Dana Hong 的插画作品，你大概很容易被其中的色彩和线条所吸引。她的插画通常内容多为一两个人物和日常生活环境，但大量鲜艳色块的运用，却让她的作品富有趣味——它们简单，却并不单一。Dana 试图用自己的方式呈现生活的两面性。
Born in South Korea, Hong moved to the U.S. to study communications, and then later graphic design in the U.K. Though she’s now set up base in Seoul, her international experiences have endowed her with invaluable clarity with what she wanted out of life—to be a full-time illustrator.
When Hong first moved back to Seoul after her time in the States, she had trouble fitting in. Her appearances didn’t fit in with the mainstream notions of beauty in the country. In combating the anxiety and negative emotions that followed, she turned to art. With a stylus in hand, she channeled the frustrations she felt into her drawings.
出生成长于韩国的 Dana，在美国读了传媒专业之后，又去英国念了设计，目前定居首尔。漂泊的经历却给了 Dana 确定自我方向的机会，成为一名插画艺术家似乎是偶然中的必然。
本科毕业后的 Dana 回到家乡首尔，却发现自己怎么都融入不了韩国对年轻女性的主流审美。为了对抗一系列由生活上的变化所带来的焦虑和抑郁情绪，Dana 打开电脑，尝试用线条和色彩将她内心的感受一点点形象化，以此作为发泄的方式。
Then, when she was furthering her studies in the U.K., she met a boy. But upon finishing school, she had to move back to Seoul. Their long-distance relationship became the creative basis of her multimedia project Mediated Love. In each animated scene, she captures the routines of their separate lives and the challenges of maintaining a relationship time zones apart.
On the project’s webpage, each frame is interactive. Hovering your cursor over the page will change the scene. Sliding a bit to the right will reveal the female, who’s stuck in Seoul, and sliding the cursor to the left will unveil the boy in London. Each is going about their day (or night). In one scene, it’s 1 a.m. in Seoul and she’s sound asleep in bed, but on the opposite side of the world, the boy is enjoying the sunshine and listening to music. He texts her a link, “Babe, check this song out when you wake up!” For anyone who’s been in a long-distance relationship, there’s a relatability that tugs at the heartstrings.
后来在英国读书时 Dana 遇见了恋人，但回国后二人不可避免地开始了时差长达 8 小时的异国恋。Dana 将灵感延伸，创作了名为《Mediated Love》的多媒体艺术项目，用一组动态视频表现跨国恋情侣的日常，并借此探索在远程沟通代替见面的数字时代，恋人间的亲密是如何被影响、转化和体现的。
在作品网页上，画面可以随着鼠标滑过而切换场景——左边是在首尔的女孩，右边是在伦敦的男孩，表现同一时间的两人正在做不同的事。她细腻而敏锐的感知，转化为这一作品里无处不在的真实动人的细节——如首尔凌晨1点半，女孩正在睡觉时，正在晒太阳的男孩将听到的歌曲发给她，“宝贝，等你起床后听一下这首歌噢”。任何有相似经历的人，或许都能感到一丝共鸣。
Illustration is Hong’s way to bridge her emotions with the tangible world. Through art, she hopes that the emotions that people often suppress in our hectic lives can be given ample breathing room. In fact, negative emotions are often the starting point for her art—she often feels most inspired when she’s in a down mood, and as she creates, her negative emotions give way to positive energy. With her simple linework and colors, Hong looks to bring about a similar cheery mood for viewers. “I hope my illustrations can put people in a different headspace, allowing them to reflect on and embrace their emotions,” she says. “My works are a salutation of sorts, a way for me to ask people, ‘Are you feeling ok?'”
插画是 Dana 表达情绪和与世界产生联系的主要方式，她希望其他的人在看到她的插画时，也能够感受到那些在这个疯狂、复杂而快速的现代生活里被压抑的情绪，并与之共鸣。
Dana 通常在自己心情低落的时候开始画画，但创作的过程却常常让她不知不觉中将负面情绪转化为了积极能量，Dana 希望能通过简单的色彩与线条组合，给观者传递一种积极的“正能量”。“我的插画让其他人跟我有了情感上的共鸣和连接，真的很棒。” Dana 说，“我希望我的插画能够为观众提供一个空间，让他们坦然思考和拥抱自己的情绪，我想通过这些作品去传递我的问候，对他们说‘你们还好吗’？”
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Website: danahong.kr
Instagram: @hongdana
Contributor: Echo Tang
