Makitoy turns daily observations into stamp-sized collages of paper and colour

For South Korean illustrator and artist Makitoy, the act of drawing sits closer to “recording time than producing a final result”, she tells us. The artist’s practice consists of persistent observation and repetition through daily collages and illustrations. She charts whole months with micro collages the size of stamps and whole years with zoomed-in snapshots of nature graphically translated into paper through the use of various drawing tools.

“Plants are one of the most important subjects in my practice. The way they slowly change and grow in their own rhythm closely reflects my way of working,” she says. The artist’s focus on this subject sees her transform natural shapes into minimal lines and structures. These reduced graphic constructions allow her to explore subtle interactions of colours, “the space between forms, the flow of light and the quiet sense of order that appears when unnecessary elements are removed,” she says.

More recently the artist has expanded on these drawings of nature with a series of still life works, capturing objects like watering cans, armchairs and paint brushes all with just a few colourful shards of paper. “I aim to transform ordinary forms and moments into visual fragments that carry warmth,” the illustrator says. “I am particularly drawn to the quiet atmosphere carried by aged objects.” By cutting and sticking these colourful moments from everyday life down, Makitoy is observing even the most subtle shifts in their daily responses to their own visual world – changes that appear in the form and colour of anything we choose to depict over time. The simple, restrained beauty of the results certainly make the case for drawing to be treated as a daily ritual.