Artist draws from life to create cherubic characters, one pining for love, the other sharing it: meet Sad Cherry and Love Cherry
- Both arrived at low moments in artist Jennifer Chow’s life. One cherubic character, Sad Cherry, expresses her negativity, the other, Love Cherry, her positivity
- It’s not hard to find such duality in ourselves, says Chow – who has a show on in Hong Kong – but focus on the positive and we can get through anything
It was on a cold winter’s night in Seoul, South Korea, four years ago that artist Jennifer Chow Hoi-yung came up with her first character, Sad Cherry, a cherubic figure with plump, vermilion-red lips.
She was staying at an apartment without heating or electricity – her friend had forgotten to pay the bills. Feeling lonely and helpless, she started sketching to reflect her emotional state.
It was only much later, while developing the character, that the 29-year-old, Born and raised in Hong Kong, realised she had created a reflection of herself.
“I come from a very large family and my father is a traditional man. He is tougher on me than my brothers, and maybe that makes me who I am today, but sometimes I just want to get a little more love from my father,” says Chow, who is the youngest daughter in a family of 15.
Chow’s childhood played a big part in the creation of Sad Cherry. A pair of cherry-red lips pout for a kiss, symbolising the desire to be loved and cared for.