i let love hurt me
love should not hurt.
yet when it does, we know it was real.
i am a slow burner, often frozen in the moment. But that only means the aftermath strikes me harder. It lingers, then crashes through me like a hurricane across a canvas.
Lovers lives in separate worlds
Name: When you seen me
Medium: Oil pastels on paper
This piece was born during a time I felt unseen and neglected in a relationship - when my messages were left on “seen,” and the other person grew so cold they almost disappeared. With long distance, there was always the quiet fear that everything could end abruptly with a single block button.
I drew it across two notebook pages, creating two separate worlds: one burning with hot colors of desire to connect, the other fading into cold blues, the figure already turning away. A mirror reflects spring outside the window, but it doesn’t matter, because inside, the relationship is locked in winter.
Imagination either saves us, or drowns us
Name: The goodbye hug we never had
Medium: Digital
Most of our suffering in love lives in the mind - but maybe happiness does too.
When Covid hit, long distance meant we could no longer meet. As the epidemic stretched on with no end in sight, I kept replaying our last encounter, wondering if the connection would fade before the world returned to normal. I feared it would end with goodbye left hanging in the air.
What haunted me most was the hug that never happened - that final moment when I waved, and he only looked back, making no move to step closer. That absence stayed with me.
The illusion of "just the two of us"
Name: Us
Medium: Digital
I am very much interested in Cubism, as it expands the possibility of expressing the subject into very interesting territories. In this piece, in the same spirit, is a simple depiction of “us” - two people not necessarily lovers, but definitely sharing a sense of connection.
I have always believed love exists when you find someone you want to form an “us” with, some kind of mutual understanding, an inner mentality that creates a small world just for the two of you. That in the world of 7 billions, we see each other, and we.just.know.
Pains leak out in glimpses of raw emotions
Name: i miss him too much i need to cry
Medium: Oil pastels
This painting could fall under “Self-portrait,” but for me it speaks more to how love hurts. We show happiness freely to the world through endless photos, but when we’re in pain, no one really wants to see it. I’ve always hated exposing myself in weak, vulnerable moments - yet sometimes vulnerability is the only path back to strength.
The piece is done simply in oil pastels, with the red hand wiping tears as the central focus. As with much of my work, the outline existed only vaguely in my head. I just knew the hand had to be there, drawing attention to the oversized, sorrowful eyes. That was all I needed to show of myself in that moment: sadness that felt unbearable, yet strangely addictive.
Letting go is hard, both in art and in life
Name: i am letting you go
Medium: Oil pastels
This piece became my final act of letting go. It was directly inspired by the memory of hugging that person from behind as they sat, giving them a kiss - the arms forming a safe space, holding on to the last trace of intimacy even as I felt them slipping away.
Looking back on it now, especially after finishing Attack on Titan - that heartbreaking, extraordinary story of this century. I see echoes that I can’t quite explain without spoiling. But if you know, you know.
I remember drawing the hand and suddenly breaking down, crying for fifteen minutes. Every stroke of paint recreated a touch I deeply missed. The act of painting became the act of letting go. And when it was finished, I felt lighter than I had in months. It is true that art saves lives. It did mine.
The crush triology - unserious and fun
Name: Inside the heart and mind of someone with a crush/ In the mood for luv/ Boy keeps me up at night (and not for good reasons)
Medium: Digital/ Oil pastels on paper/ Digital
Let’s call this The Crush Trilogy. These three pieces were made back-to-back during a brief crush on someone at work. It was lighthearted, fun, and never meant to be more - but it felt like sudden sunshine breaking through London’s cloudy skies.
That giddy, weightless feeling lifted me into new ideas, and I loved translating it onto canvas - whether digital or with traditional materials. The first piece depicts a brain lit up like an electrified network, buzzing non-stop under the spell of a crush. The second captures that dreamy, airheaded state of being in the mood for love. And the last one turns bittersweet, reflecting the quiet ache of thinking about someone late at night.
I personally love this period in my art—it was unserious, spontaneous, and brimming with inspiration.
Dramatic lines and color schemes
Name: Yellow/ I couldn't believe you did it to us/ Self-portrait/ Insomnia
Medium: Digital/ Digital/ Oil pastels , pencils & acrylic on paper/ Digital
In my work, color has always been the vessel for intense feelings. Red appears often, carrying my voice, while yellow shows up rarely - but when it does, it strikes hard. Paired in sharp contrast with other colors, yellow brings shock, discomfort, and tension.
Alongside color, I also experimented with free, instinctive lines - marks without fixed meaning, but honest to what I felt in the moment of making. These three pieces came from the lowest point of a heartbreak, when I was confronting truths almost too heavy to bear.
Layers of emotions translated onto paper
Name: The Night Song
Medium: Oil pastels
In this piece, I was capturing a very specific and personal moment, layered with conflicting emotions. The haze of memory makes the same event open to shifting interpretations - to the point where I’m not even sure how I should feel about it. What remains vivid, though, is the physical sensation of holding someone - that part is undeniably real.
The fragmented nature of the memory led me to Cubism, which gave me the space to break the moment apart and reassemble it, turning a single night into many overlapping perspectives on canvas.
One man, through two lens
Name: Man with tortured soul/ gosh why are you so cute i like you too much i wanna cry
Medium: Mixed media
As I developed a crush on someone, I became obsessed with drawing them out. But one person can be seen in very different lights, as shown in these two portraits.
One - painted in cold tones with exaggerated sorrowful eyes - came after hearing his sad sharings. The other, unserious and done in my favorite red, is my way of showing appreciation in a moment when I couldn’t hide my attraction toward them.
Taking rejection with a light heart
Name: When you luv someone but it goes to waste
Medium: Digital
As I grow more mature, things become calmer, and I react to things in a more calm, light-hearted way. I took a rejection with a cute, unserious illustration of myself carrying my rejected heart. It does not hide the fact that I was sad about the wasted affection, but still... life goes on.
