Shunned and Friendly
Shunned and Friendly was created using a digital medium. This piece’s main focal point is the two characters in the center. One is drawing on a box that the other has on their head. They sit under a blanket held up by hands. This blanket sits on top of a glowing moon that illuminates the clouds and bones around them. They’re in a sky-like scene, above them, there’s a small water scene. There’s goldfish with wings, with one sitting in a paper boat fishing for the people below them. On the end of their fishing hook is a star. Similar stars float around the sky scene, hooks and string still attached- just not to rods. I created this piece with a specific meaning in mind. I wanted to communicate how sometimes it feels like everything is after you, but that there will always be someone there to help you through those times- even if you can’t see them. My intention was to show you are never entirely alone, that no matter how solitary you feel, someone is there. It may feel like the whole world is against you, going after you, targeting you…but there will always be someone who is willing to help you.
The artist that inspired me is named Lulu Chen. She is a digital artist who’s set to graduate in April of 2023. She’s young and amazing at her craft. She’s been a huge inspiration to me since I first found her work in 2018. The specific work of hers that inspired my piece is a work called Germ Island. It’s another digital work that depicts a few monster-like creatures with their eyes fixed on a cage with a person inside. The creatures all seem scared of the person, an older looking one pokes at the human with a stick. The feeling this work brought me was odd. It felt both ethereal and lonely. The monsters are likely just as scared as the person is. It makes me wonder if the person felt alone. That question sparked the idea for my own work. Where I communicate the idea of never really being alone, even when it feels like it.
Lulu Chen is a young artist who mainly works in the digital medium. She chose to attend Sheridan college to study children’s illustrations. Still a college student as of now, she has won multiple awards. This includes- but is not limited to: The Society of Illustrators, Best Category Award for Society of Illustrators Rising Stars; People’s Choice Award of Howl’s Moving Castle Book Illustration Competition from the Folio Society; Best in show in the Illustration category at the Academy of Art College Spring 2018 Show; Best Category Award for Sketchbook and Drawing in the Illustration category at the Academy of Art College Spring 2018 Show; and a few more. On top of this, she has also collaborated on a few books. Lulu Chen worked with Cheil Worldwide on an illustration project- "Lose yourself in a book" for Penguin Random House. Lulu tends to draw the things she loves, like nature and animals. She is a young, accomplished artist who deserves every bit of recognition she receives and more.
