Wet lonely dog

This “Wet Lonely Dog” was drawn in 2012, when I was living in London. At that time, I stayed for about five or six months in a shared house with a few people, sleeping on a small sofa next to the kitchen table on the ground floor.

I arrived at Heathrow past midnight, but the room I thought I had booked near the airport was not actually reserved. I had nowhere to stay and almost had to sleep outside. The area was dark and empty, with no people or cars around. I knocked on a few doors with lights on, but of course at that time nobody answered. Luckily, a big man came out and asked what happened. I explained my situation, and he let me rest in the lobby until morning. He even gave me a hot cup of tea. When I said I was Korean, he told me he was Turkish and called me “brother.” I still remember his kindness. My first night in London was already difficult.

Fortunately, Jessi, a friend I had met in Australia, was living in London. She kindly gave me a corner of her room, and that was the start of my life on the sofa in that house. It was a warm and positive place, and I still remember all the friends, their faces, and their laughter.

Most mornings, I woke up late, after everyone else had gone to work. Only Joseph and I stayed in the house. Joseph was a busker, good at guitar, harmonica, and singing. While he practiced, I sat and drew, listening to his humming. I really enjoyed that time.

In the evenings, when everyone gathered, we sometimes played ping-pong on the kitchen table, or went to Alex’s room, the master of the house, to play with his fish Tonny (a name I gave him) and play games. Those memories are still clear to me.

At that time, I was still young and often lost emotionally. Maybe the grey weather in London also affected me. Most of my drawings from that period, like the “Wet Lonely Dog”, were dark and heavy.

I gave that drawing to Jessi, who helped me when I had no place to go. That dog was me.

(Back then, life was also very different. Wi-Fi was rare, and I had to use a prepaid USB stick to connect my laptop to the internet. Social media and communication were not as easy as today, so daily life depended more on people’s kindness, warm hands, and face-to-face conversations.)