My Dream

This work began as a pen drawing, which I later translated into an acrylic painting. It portrays the moments when I suffered from depression, even to the point of self-harm, expressing my inner emotions at that time through the forms of multiple animals. The overall teal background conveys a sense of sadness.

The largest animal in the painting, a fox, represents my persona. This large fox is a mother fox, but the baby fox inside her has been miscarried; it emerges incompletely formed through the split in her abdomen. I depicted myself as this baby fox, abandoned by its mother and unloved, slipping away. The red blood shed by the baby fox embodies my anger and pain.

The pineapple placed on the mother fox’s back is my favorite fruit, and each segment symbolizes light and hope. In contrast, at the bottom right of the painting, there is a pill bottle and a duck. The pill bottle represents the medication I take, carrying feelings of pain and sorrow. Beside it, the duck, in a somewhat twisted posture, gazes at the bottle, reflecting the hardship I experienced while taking the medication.

Next to the pineapple on the mother fox’s back, there is a green snake. The green snake is a guardian that protects the pineapple. To the right side of the mother fox’s face, an elephant’s trunk appears, twisted like a rope. This trunk represents the trauma that tormented me. The wrinkled red tails bind me like painful memories, tightening around me and causing distress.

Both the mother fox and the duck are aware of this and look toward it, but only the snake gazes in the opposite direction. This is because it is a presence that protects me as I look ahead and move forward on my own path, without yielding to trauma. In Korean mythology, snakes symbolize wisdom. The area around the snake is painted in a bright lemon hue, representing strength, spirit, and happiness. For me, yellow expresses the positivity and joy of the sun.