I illustrated the fantastic essay “cooking through the quarantine” by chef @koreanfusion Seung Hee Lee for @atlantamagazine
I’ve mentioned this before but I’m so grateful to be able to dive into so many different people’s lives and realities through my work, and this essay was no different. There I was in Berlin, in the middle of a worldwide lockdown feeling quite desperate at times but also ecstatic the next minute because diner time had come and our very first homemade pizza was on the menu, and then down again because I happen to look out the window and remember that I lived in a ghost city for I didn’t know how long, still. And then the next minute this essay made it through my inbox and my Art Director in Atlanta was like “this might be my favourite essays of all times, have a look”. I illustrate this column since about 2 years, and I surely can say, I never felt so touched before by a brief. Was it because I needed the distraction from my own gloomy quarantine, was it because escaping into someone else’s quarantine was still better than being present in my own, was it because of the Korean cravings I always have, was it because it was so well written and authentic, was it because it gave me the sensation I was travelling to far away places, was it because it made me dream? I imagined a kitchen window overlooking a beautiful sunset somewhere on the other side of the world, a countertop filled with homemade bread and Korean delicacies, gorgeous tableware and a bit of white wine. It felt good and hopeful and real.
What a gift to be able to feel and see what we can’t yet by reading other people’s words.