Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Kim.
Erin, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1994. Since I was a young girl, I was very sure that I would become an artist. My family decided to immigrate to British Columbia, Canada when I was 12, so I had to move and learn English. Around that time I was drawing so much because I couldn’t speak English very well and all I could do was draw. I grew up reading manga and watching anime mostly, even though I was living in Canada. At some point, I didn’t need to download subtitles anymore because I just learned Japanese through anime. I was really into anime for sure, and it’s still my inspiration.
It was time for me to go to college and I heard that CalArts was the best school for animation, but I didn’t even know that the big animation industry was in LA at that time. In 2012, I got accepted to CalArts. It was the best thing that could happen to a nerdy animation girl. Every year I was making a short film at school. Designing, storyboarding, animating, coloring, and compositing all by myself. Despite all the suffering and self-doubt, I really enjoyed the whole process, and the end result was very satisfying, I fell in love with filmmaking. During my school years, I really focused on filmmaking, not worrying about what I was going to do professionally.
However, after graduating from CalArts, I was lost for a while. It seemed like no studio in LA wanted me, since I considered myself as a generalist, doing everything. In fact, I quickly realized that LA wasn’t the place for independent filmmaking. It was really the time for me to decide which specific “field” I wanted to go into. Not being so sure, I did all sorts of freelance for about a year, then I worked as a 2D animator at Jib Jab(Storybots Inc.) for a few years. Then I slowly started to realize that what I truly love is storytelling when I started making personal comics. And that, what I loved the most about filmmaking was the storytelling part. It took a while, but now that I have realized what I really like, I’m trying to focus more on projects that really challenge me as a storyteller.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I make art that is coming from my personal life struggles. That way, I can tell genuine and sincere stories.
I finished a short film called “Revenge Story” in February of 2019 by myself about a ballerina who seeks revenge on the chiropractor who she blames for ruining her career. In the film, a chiropractor snaps the ballerina’s neck, and her neck gets bent. She thinks that her career is forever ruined, and she is unable to forgive him. As a result, she comes up with elaborate plans to destroy the chiropractor’s life, which only ends up ruining her neck even more. Revenge Story is not literally about my neck injured, but it’s about my experience of moving on from something. In fact, I wanted to tell a story about things that we all dwell on and obsess over. It could be a person, a thing, or a traumatic life event that forever changed everything. When you continue with the obsession, it just creates more problems in life. At some point, you have to move on, even if there is no satisfying closure to the situation.
I also make short personal comics about myself struggling to make good art. I vaguely named it “Emo Art Girl.” I think most artists have a hard time being proud of their work. Or at least for me, my relationship with my artwork is unhealthily negative, and it’s something that I’m constantly battling with. I feel like I’m not good enough. So I started talking more about that feeling. The ups and downs of creating artwork are something that all artists can relate to. It’s a pretty light-hearted series that I casually make, especially when I’m panicking a lot about artistic abilities. I like making fun of myself.
Another on-going project right now is a webcomic series called Zero Empathy Boi. It’s about the dysfunctional life of a boy named Zeb. His childhood was filled with traumatic events that stunted his growth and sucked all the empathy out of him. He interacts with other characters, but because he has no empathy, people get hurt by his blunt and honest words. Zeb, however, does not think anything that happened in his childhood was bad. He’s oblivious. Zeb often contradicts himself by saying that feelings are for losers, but deep inside, he desperately wants to be liked. Zero Empathy Boi is inspired by Crayon Shin Chan, and my personal experience of constantly getting hurt by other people’s words. I want people to feel that their hurt feelings are validated, and that empathy is pretty important to maintain any type of relationships!
How can artists connect with other artists?
I think social media is a great way to find like-minded artists. I started using Instagram about a year ago, and it was very nice to find so many artists with similar taste. When I was a student at CalArts, I appreciated and admired my peers’ work, but I couldn’t find that many styles that I clicked with. Once I started my Instagram account, I started finding many independent filmmakers from all over the world, and French character designers who inspire me so much. I think part of socializing in the art world is about exposing your artwork as well. Putting yourself out there will let other people find you. I don’t believe in “networking” in the sense of friending everyone because you think they will later help you get to a place you want to be at. But I do believe in just having fun with other artists you like, and exchanging encouragement.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Revenge Story is not released yet, but all my comics are on Instagram.
That’s where I post all my work now. I’m focusing more on Zero Empathy Boi so that I can publish a zine one day.
Also, I sometimes have short random comics and interactive comics on Instagram Stories, where the audience can choose the answer (or what I will draw next).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vimeo.com/erinkimanimation
- Phone: 8189003233
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erinkimart
Image Credit:
My picture taken by Eusong Lee
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