It’s Always the Weekend in These Intricate Paintings of Downtime

April 8, 2017, 7:30am

If it’s not hanging with friends over coffee or trying out an acupuncture treatment, Korean illustrator and painter Paige Jiyoung Moon creates acrylic paintings from real-life experiences. Her detailed and dense paintings often depict young people hanging out together without pretense, lounging about in public spaces, and interacting with their mobile devices. Her tech-savvy characters are painted within natural landscapes and zen locations.

A tableau of three women, two checking their phones, is juxtaposed by a towering statue of an Asian goddess within a blissful garden. More specific settings include a print class, where a group of students watch a professor demonstrate a new technique, or a subway car, where riders sport warm-weather clothes and all wear headphones.

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Like the young people in her drawings, the painter, who is based in Glendale, California, is a fan of hiking, enjoying good coffee, and watching movies. She tells Creators her artwork reflects “how we experience a usual day, how we remember it in our mind.” Moon says, “It can be a normal day, but it can turn out to be special and that makes us smile.”

When developing her pieces, the artist draws upon particularly strong visual memories. She says, “Sometimes I think about paintings when I’m with people. If some place has a nice interior or my friend is wearing a shirt with a nice pattern, I think about painting it. But mostly, I remember things later and think about the moments that I keep remembering or smile at.”

“There are certain times,” Moon continues, “that make me feel like I want to remember everything around me like colors, furniture, and people in the environment. These are my memories that I want to remember for a long time.”