I can definitely say my art and stories got more imaginative and fun after I moved to Australia. I first came to Australia when I was 12. I’ve been moving back and forth from my home country, South Korea, and Australia, and interacted with so many people between the two countries. Being an international student in a country where I didn’t know how to speak their language at first was surely tough but I managed to adapt to the new environment and got to experience so many new things.

I found art was something that connects people's minds beyond borders. I could relate and feel connected with people by focusing on my art even before I learned how to speak English.

And funnily enough, the second thing that connects people was gaming, haha. I always enjoyed staying at home and focusing on my own thing, as I work from home I tended to play at home. Originally I was drawn to games that told a story, and had beautiful art and music. They try to do a lot of what I do with comics. The Final Fantasy series, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Detroit: Become Human, to name a few. In more recent years I have started to play a lot of co-op games like the Forest, Raft, Minecraft, Terraria, and LoL with friends and family.

I’ve created many different genres of comics such as romance, action, thriller, and fantasy. But a slice of life has always been something I wanted to fully try as TV shows such as Friends and Modern Family are my absolute favorite to watch. I love the fact that simple stories from our daily life can touch on so many deeper ideas. Sometimes it’s a gentle pat on your back or a light chuckle that can push you through a tough day. I like the fact that readers can relate to my experiences and also share their stories with me.

Whenever I catch myself laughing out loud, I make a mental note of what was so funny. Or if my husband and I have a little debate over something, I see if I can put it into a comic. The comics are like my way of asking others what they think about this situation.

I struggle with depression from time to time and having to come up with something in my life that makes me laugh a little gives me strength and makes me realize I have those moments that shine.

So having to create Daily Jelly and coming up with ideas is more of a reminder of my happy moments and it actually helps me to be more happy! I hope people reading the series also relate to some of my stories and get reminded they have those moments too.

I was interested in so many things as a kid but being in that beauty trend came a little late for me, I’d say. I didn’t really care that much about makeup and fashion trends but it suddenly hit me late in my mid-20s! Gosh, all the YouTube videos I had to watch to catch up with all the other pretty sparkling people. Which I enjoyed a lot, by the way. I went through one of those too light/dark shade foundation eras when I was about to graduate from uni and have so many embarrassing episodes related to it. I’m still not so perfect at catching up with the beauty trends, a few years behind the times, haha. I don’t stress about it but rather enjoy the fact that at least now I know my right shade of foundation!

Along with having to adapt to the belated awakening of the beauty world, since the meeting, my husband has become a big part of my life now. Being an international student in Australia has never been easy for me but I did get to meet my future partner in uni. Yes, it’s one of those cheesy ways to describe ‘love’. We are so very different in many ways yet so similar in other ways. The fact that I’m a Korean and he’s an Australian definitely gave us so many odds to overcome, but also gave me so many fun moments I’d never gone through before. We got married late last year after a long-distance relationship due to the very unfortunate timing of Covid-19. Despite meeting in uni 7 years ago, we ended up having to have a relationship through Discord for 2 years, can you imagine? There’s a whole dramatic, happy ending love story of us two that one day I also wish to make into a comic.

Since our relationship started, every day we bump into new cultural oddities and funny moments. We've often joked about what other people might think, which ended up leading to the idea of Daily Jelly. We already created a short webtoon story together and won an award, it was his first time writing and he loves to rub that fact in. So we make a good team in the relationship and for comics. Jelly’s daily life wouldn’t be whole without her hubby, Tea.

I always thought my cats were the biggest inspiration in my comics. Their devilish yet harmless cat behaviors and chilled but down-to-earth personalities make me wish that I could live more like them. Less stress and be relaxed.

Before I had cats I always heard they were cold and untrainable creatures, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Cheeze and Leo both had distinctive personalities in spades as kittens, and I’ve been able to watch their personalities develop over the years. Cheeze, the sassy cute boy, and Leo who was a big scaredy cat but the most gentle and soft cat. They have got me through so many things.

Sadly, Leo passed away a few weeks ago suddenly. No one saw it coming and I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to him.

Losing Leo brought me a new type of pain that I'd never felt before, and made me realize how important he was to me. I want to believe he had a great and wonderful time with me on earth and hope to see him again. He will forever inspire me in my art and story as I’ll always try to be a proud mum for him that he can boast about in his heaven.

Coming up with a story to tell and having it to go along with art feels very different. You need to compromise how much time and effort you’ll put into each panel. We have deadlines to meet and it’s always hard to find the right balance between just delivering the message and getting the art of the right quality. Planning each panel ahead definitely works and having your friends and family to glance at your work also helps a lot too!

I often find the aspect that I obsess over ends up not being as important from the readers’ point of view. I always try to learn from the comments, and it often surprises me which parts the community identifies with. This has helped me to just trust my gut and not worry too much about pleasing the audience, as I know if I’m going to miss the mark, it’s better to have done it true to myself.