One of my favorite pieces of art from this year, perhaps because it captures so much of the 2020 experience, and speaks to the way we try to cope during a pandemic.
Having to work from home for most of the first half of the year prompted the persuit of some mellow, non-distracting background music. This lead to the discovery of lofi hip hop channels on YouTube. One of the most popular of which (on the ChilledCow channels) has a simple lofi study girl animation. This image seems to have its roots in the wonderful, Japanese, Studo Ghibli movie Whisper of the Heart.
The image evolved into a meme, with the girl being relocated to different parts of the world–Bored Panda has a number of examples.
Switched on Pop has an excellent podcast episode on the Lofi Music phenomenon called Why lo-fi is the perfect background music. It delves into the history and economics, but focuses on the musical qualities–beats, semi-random elements, etc–that make it well situated for background music.
Apart from the visual and contextual appeal of the Lofi Cali Girl image at the top of this post, the biography of the artist is quite interesting in how it encapsulates an internet-era artistic trajectory. In addition to traditional drawing classes and a BA in Art she credits:
What helped me the most was actually being part of the deviantART community where I learned from other artists by observing their works, and the free tutorials they provided.
Yuumei, FAQ
Her extensive use of them has lead her to create and publish her own free tutorials.