Seromi (Originally published on Sept 6, 2023)
Although this project is yet untitled, I’m very excited to be publishing the first piece in my new series. I’ll be interviewing other Asian American artists to gain insight into their lives, their artistic processes, and their motivations.
Seromi Girvin is a cartoonist, animator and visual artist from central Jersey. Choosing her to be the first subject for this project was easy. Our moms met in college at Hanyang University in the 80’s, and their friendship lasts to this day. Seromi and I grew up together, spending weekends watching Korean drama films in her basement and putting on shows for our parents. I wanted to start this project with someone I already knew, and Seromi was the perfect candidate. Three years my junior, Seromi was one of the only other half-white half-Korean kids I knew growing up, yet we had never talked about that shared experience before.
Seromi is a talented, intelligent and hard working individual studying animation at SCAD in her sophomore year. It was really fun to catch up and fill in the gaps of so many missed years, reminiscing about Korean aesthetics and TV shows that influenced our senses of humor growing up.
“I always thought Shin Jjanggu was a Korean cartoon,” she told me, holding in a giggle.
“Me too! My brother told me recently that it was originally Japanese. How was I supposed to know that?”
Seromi laughs. “It’s one of the most Korean things ever. I think Jjanggu influenced my aesthetics a lot. I’m just a silly little guy.”
It’s really hard to describe Jjanggu to someone who didn’t grow up watching it. Jjanggu is basically an eccentric little boy who lives with his parents and baby sister and goes to school with his friends, and despite that fairly innocuous plot is rated the Korean equivalent of PG-13. Keeping this in mind, it is heavily marketed towards young children, with the image of Jjanggu sticking his bare butt out and wiggling around becoming an iconic image for Asian kids in America and overseas. He doesn’t go on adventures or anything, except in the movies, which are really really good. It’s basically a slice of life anime for kids, but much funnier.
Seromi draws a lot of inspiration from cartoons like Jjanggu and her unique comedic style, which arose from her difficulty understanding American humor growing up. Korean and American humor are very different; Korean humor is extremely slapstick and exaggerated while American humor tends to veer towards point blank statements and observations. Over time, combining aspects of these cultures allowed Seromi to reach her ultimate goal: make people laugh.
“Growing up I just wanted to make my mom and dad laugh. I wanted to be funny. I was pushed to do a lot of music growing up, so art was the first place where I could just do my own thing. It was the only thing I was ever consistently interested in.”
Her animation work is derived from cartoons, but her personal work emerged from a certain Korean sensibility. The aesthetic that comes with being Korean definitely influenced her style and what she wanted it to be. I asked her what she considered to be a “Korean” aesthetic.
“Oh my gosh, like waxy pastels.”
I laughed. “And delicate watercolors. White face and red lips.”
She nodded. “Untreated mental problems.”
We both laughed raucously at that statement, a little too real for the paths we had chosen, the world we were living in. I felt deeply comforted. Here’s a person who understands what it’s like to grow up like me, to feel weighed down by your parents expectations and your own cultural confusion. I was glad I had chosen to do this series at that moment more than any other part of the interview.
When it comes to motivation, Seromi isn’t doing this for anyone but herself. She wants her work to make people laugh and make people happy, but at the end of the day she makes art because she needs to, something all artists feel on a cellular level.
“Do you ever feel pressured to do ‘more’ with your life, whatever that means?” I asked.
“All the time,” she answered automatically. “But that statement annoys me. I want to do more with my life because I want to do more for myself. I push myself to work harder, not because of a goal someone else might have for me, but because that’s just how I am.”
In terms of her hopes for the future, Seromi wants to be an animator, but she also has a great love for graphic design.
“I want to make my own clothing line,” she tells me with a twinkle in her eye. And I believe she can do it. Seromi is not only talented, she is motivated.
I had a lot of fun talking to her and making her portrait for this series, incorporating elements of her cartoony and bright style into the painting, letting our commingling childhoods linger in my mind as I made it. This is one of my favorite portraits to date, and I’m glad I got to work with such a hardworking individual with whom I share so much history.
Thank you for reading! Keep an eye out for the next painting in this series, which I’ll be posting to my blog as well as Instagram.
