Hello. I’m Pagwa, an artist working as both an illustrator and a tattoo artist. I record in my drawings the small hopes I find within warmth and fragility. My inspiration comes mostly from my favorite season, summer, from nature, and from the emotions I’ve felt in my relationships with all kinds of beings.

I work in both digital and hand-drawn media. My preparation starts with thinking about which materials and textures would best suit the scene or the emotion. What matters most as I bring a piece to completion is whether the color and mood I want to express come together naturally. I imagine myself stepping right into the landscape as I draw. And then there are moments when an unexpected scene or a burst of inspiration surfaces. That element of chance is one of the great joys of the work.

This work came out of reinterpreting two artworks in my own language: Overdeepening, installed at Amorepacific’s headquarters, and Infinite Bloom, the media art in the fifth-floor courtyard. What I especially wanted to capture was the lively energy of summer, the season I love. Sometimes summer plants feel to me as though they have opened into full bloom, making their presence known with all their strength. I worked hoping that the vitality and freshness of the season would seep naturally into the piece. I hope this energy reaches to everyone seeing the drawing , and become a small source of strength and comfort in their everyday lives.

The Overdeepening piece in particular brims with the life and beauty of summer. I imagined the water pooled beneath the work as a pond, and drew a scene in which deer, ducks, and butterflies quite naturally come by and settle around it. The Infinite Bloom piece, meanwhile, began with the quiet scenery of a summer night. A summer night is still, but look closely into it, and I think you’ll find a far deeper, stronger energy running through it. I tried to express the lush plants and the calm air that are there even in the middle of the night.

I felt that Amorepacific is not defining beauty by a single standard, but helping people discover and express ‘my own beauty.’ I also work as a tattoo artist. I see this in my tattoo work: the same design can mean a precious memory to one person and a new resolution to another. It has always fascinated me that the same image reaches each person with a different meaning. It made me realize how much it matters for everyone to discover their own story and beauty and bring them into bloom, each in their own way, and I was glad to find that ‘Create New Beauty’ seems to carry that same message.

I think it’s a heart that never lets go of the things you love. We keep looking outside ourselves for a standard as we go through life. In the end, what makes me most myself and most beautiful is a steady determination to keep valuing the things I hold dear and to protect them. I try to hold on to that same heart myself.

I love reading, so I try not to lose touch with reading. Reading alone leads me to reflect on what I need right now and what I’m feeling. Perhaps the very act of taking time to check in with myself like this, of treating myself with care, is a way of creating my own beauty.

These days I’m also trying to pay conscious attention to my posture and my breathing. When I’m focused in a piece, I often find that my body has tensed up and that I’m holding my breath without me noticing. So I loosen up now and then, trying not to forget to breathe. I’m not very good at it yet, but I believe these small habits go a long way toward easing a tense body and mind.

What struck me was the sheer number of ways Amorepacific approaches beauty. It goes well beyond simply making beauty products: it runs social contribution initiatives and supports artists and their work in all sorts of forms. This project felt like a meaningful chance to think hard about the value of my own beauty and to express it through my own eyes. It was a time that brought me new inspiration. I’m also grateful to be able to show my work to such a wide range of readers.

Living with the belief that you are someone precious and beautiful is harder than it sounds. I often find that belief wavering in myself, too. And yet, in the end, isn’t even that wavering one of the precious parts that make me who I am? I’ll be cheering you on wholeheartedly as you discover your own beauty at your own pace, on your own journey through life, and let that beauty come into bloom naturally.