Omega Francis

Arson

Arson was pretty straightforward, I wanted to capture what it would look like after something has been burnt, but there were some embers still lit. That fire still burning deep inside even when everything around it has gone to ash.

“Right, I lit the flame
Now I ask myself, choose what
Do I put out the fire, or burn even brighter
It’s done”

Arson, J-Hope

Blue Side

The song evokes a sense of tranquility and calm, but also introspection. For me, this tends to happen near water and this is why I instinctively painted Blue Side the way I did. Water, and specifically the ocean, has always been a place where I felt the most healing energy and when I listen to Blue Side it also has that healing energy. When I sat down to paint Blue Side I did not actually know what I was going to paint (this is a trend for pretty much 90% of everything I have done in this project.) I just knew it would be blue. So, I picked up the brush and let the energy of the song guide my hands and this is what happened. When I finished and took a step back, I saw what I had done. The water’s edge. A beach shoreline. Blue and evoking that feeling of comfort and healing.

The following part of the song best connects with the feeling and intention I had behind the painting:

“The sun shined on the cold and the clouds wrapped around the blue
I ride the wind in the sky to that place in this moment, blue
It’s now comforting my heart, blue
I’m alone below the blue moonlight, blue”

Blue Side, J-Hope

I Wonder

First, let me say that when I first heard this song it called to me, it pulled on my heartstrings so hard I was not able to listen and not FEEL. I have a very special connection with this song, every time I hear it I must give it my full attention; every time I hear it I get emotional. Is it the magical combination of Hobi’s and Jungkook’s voices? Maybe. Is it the subject matter? Possibly. But what I know is I feel this song on an almost cosmic/ metaphysical level. I think of him looking up at the night sky and calling out to the universe about that person, about the future they would have together. ‘I Wonder’ is a song that fills me with the vastness of possibility in love and happiness. So I painted my version of the cosmos. An orderly and harmonious universe that will have the exact answer to the question…the queries in ‘I Wonder’. It seemed right and perfect for this song.

Neuron

This painting originally did not look like this. I started with the circles in the centre and the ‘electrified’ black lines sprouting out. In my mind this is what a neuron would look like, something that connects and communicates messages throughout our bodies must have that energetic feeling. I did it, stood back and, then I saw it: the eye in the centre. Completely and utterly accidental and frankly so perfect it shocked me. If I had tried to paint an eye I might have failed. But somehow my hands just knew. The brush knew. But, it was not right and it sat for a bit until I got back to it and I realized that what it needed was colour. Because what is Hobi’s life without colour? Neuron is a song that celebrates his relationship with his dance comrades; the actual group named Neuron and how beautiful and colourful his life has become simply for having them in it. When I added the colour, it felt right and it was perfect.

Piece of Peace

This one was also another one that I did and had to come back to because I felt as if it wasn’t ‘right’. Initially, I drew a very obvious peace sign, totally cliché, totally basic. But there is nothing cliché or basic about Hobi’s music, so I knew it had to be better. Then, one day I was listening to Hopeworld (well to the Spotify ‘This is J-Hope’ playlist more specifically) and I had my headphones in, something I strangely don’t often do when I listen to music (weird, I know), and I heard it…for the first time. Steelpan. I have no idea why I had never heard it before even though I have listened to P.O.P numerous times, but I think it had to do with having the headphones in and fully hearing all the layers. That was the moment I was like, ‘This is it!’ The fact that Hobi had included the national instrument of my country made this song now 100 times more meaningful to me. The fact that P.O.P is a song (from my interpretation) about identity and wanting to find his place in someone’s life; to be their comfort and peace and him using something that is tied to my own national identity made sense. So, I went back and inside the peace sign, I drew my interpretation of a steelpan. When I was done, it was right. It was better.

More

A favourite of mine. Very obvious, Box: Jester’s hat inside. That is what this painting sprouted from. Just like the spiral of JITB, it came to me while I was trying to have a quiet moment. The box was the first thought, then the hat. It was perfect. I initially wanted More and Arson to share the same page with the box being at the centre, but things went another way. The box happened all right enough and then the lines happened on the right side (which was supposed to be the side for More, with the left side for Arson), but for some reason, my brain said, ‘Nope!’ Before I knew it the entire page was filled with lines with the box at the centre creating a 3D effect. It felt right. There was no argument from me. It stayed. Note: the front of the box is meant to look smudged like that. It was my attempt at adding the ‘sooty/burnt’ effect that Hobi had on his jumpsuit in Arson. Even though this entire painting came to represent More, I still felt an urge to slip something in there for Arson.

Jack in The Box

Now, this project was intended to only include songs and not albums, but for some reason I found myself labelling this one Jack in the Box. You might ask, ‘Why a spiral?’ I would answer outright, ‘I don’t know’, but then if you ask again I would say, ‘I saw it in my mind’s eye that this is what was meant to represent JITB’. Yes, I literally was lying in bed trying to sleep and my mind wandered (as it usually does), and I started thinking about the project and I saw the black circle at the centre, and then the colours spiralling from it. I had no idea how I was going to get it done, but the next day I grabbed a pencil and freehanded the spiral, and somehow it worked out. Then, the colours were obvious. If you know the album concept you would get why the colours (I chose the ones I had that were closest to the ones Hobi used). In any case, after I sat and looked at it when I was finished, it made sense. JITB is an album that speaks to Hobi’s development as an artist, his journey to find his way ‘out of the box’, while speaking to the experience he had while ‘inside the box’. That experience of existing in two spaces can be disorienting and what’s more disorienting than watching a spiral? Watch it long enough and you might find yourself grow dizzy and needing something to steady you. The potentially disorienting experiences he had as an artist with new-found fame and fortune; how people treated him, how he was seen, alongside his hopes and dreams and willingness to push past all of that…that to me is the essence of the JITB album, and this is why I decided to portray it as I did.

Safety Zone

The big yellow circle/sun in the centre is the safety zone. This potentially hot centre is being sought when the world is attacking you from all corners. I tried to represent it as a sun dipping below the horizon. It’s out there, we know it is, but like the sun we can’t touch it. We seek it and its warmth and life-giving powers, but when we reach for it it just dips below the horizon that is far in view. In ‘Safety Zone’ Hobi asks where his safety zone is from all the world’s stuff, possibly thinking it may be external to himself, but just as the sun is in this painting, maybe it is right there in the centre of who he is. Maybe he is his safety zone, the same way he acts as a safety zone for so many of us.

Equal Sign

This song is my all-time favourite J-Hope song. It encompasses everything that is in my heart. I tried to represent different people as circles inside of circles. We are human (circle), but what makes us unique are our experiences, our culture, or our identity, etc (the different colours and sizes of the circle). The red equal sign in the middle of the blocks is what separates, us but also what connects us. In the end, we all are the same. We all have colour; our very essence is colourful and makes us unique, but it also makes us so similar. Human beings living a human existence, trying to love and find happiness.

“Same, the breaths we breathe
Same, the dreams we dream
Same, laughter and tears in life
Same, all things to be respected”

Equal Sign, J-Hope

I don’t know

This song gives me the vibes of two people staring at each other across a chasm; both on different sides believing, seeing, and doing different things, but wanting and hoping for the same outcome. So I tried to communicate this through the painting. The orange line separating the two sections, but seeping into each section is like two people reaching for each other, seeking but not truly finding. They are both separate and distinctly different human beings, but they long to understand each other, but they also deeply hurt each other without intending. The scars are deep, they fight to get back to each other when they separate, but there will always be something keeping them from truly connecting.

What If?

This one was essentially another that began with just a single thought. I told myself, this should be a face of some kind. An abstract face that has symbols like question marks on it because throughout the song Hobi repeats the question, ‘What If?’ Then when I began to draw out the lines and fill them in, that idea somewhat went out the window. As per usual, I painted with the ‘vibes’, and this one became pure vibes in the end, mainly when it came to the colour choices and the idea to put in the black and white ‘eyes’. In any case, I wanted to do it this way because to me this song seems like he is asking so many questions about aspects or fragments of his existence: having a car, house, passion, etc. All parts that make up a whole. Fragments, pieces, parts of a whole. Remove one and you can no longer see the full picture, and every piece is important and brings something new and interesting to the mix.

Future

A simple painting: a yellow road leading us to our future. Every decision, every pathway we have made in our pasts (the coloured waves) flows into the main pathway. Each aspect of our past, and present, every aspect of who we are flowing smoothly into one space. A path paved in gold. A yellow-bricked road. Our true path. Our future.

“Man, you must go with the flow
Let’s just go with the flow (Future)
Looks like I need it too
Betting on courage, faith, and hope”

Future, J-Hope

Hope World

 If I remember correctly, Hobi has said that Hopeworld is probably the best representation of who he is. As he says right at the start of the song,

“My name is my life

A hopeful vibe, a positive rather than a negative type”

Hope World, J-Hope

Hopeworld embodies who he is and who he wants to be, hope for others, and even himself. So with that in mind, and with the overall vibe, anything I did for this song had to be colourful and have that sense of ‘hope’. So, I chose bright colours and I decided to join hearts with a string. The string might be blue (I was trying my best to get some of the similar overall colours of the Hopeworld aesthetic), but it represents the string of faith that can connect people across cultures, and countries. The string that cosmically joins us to one common understanding and passion. The string of love and hope.

Pandora’s Box

This one had to be as vibrant as I could make it because this is a story of hope being unleashed into the world. A ‘ray of light left in the box, and put into a pure-hearted boy’; that’s our Hope. Every aspect of his life is like a ray of light to others, but there is also a bit of darkness too, which also connects us to him. This lived reality that we exist in with him, shedding his light on us, sharing his dark parts with us, gives us all hope to exist as our best selves…or as our true selves. So I didn’t draw the box, but I drew the energy of hope and dreams and passion that would come from the box, that comes from him through his music and his dance and inspires so many of us.