HAPPY 2 B SAD CAN MAKE YOU PRETTY HAPPY
Words: Louisa Wright
Hands up if you’ve ever kept a diary? Those who have will know that they can be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. When I was in year seven my younger siblings found my grade six diary and paraded about the house laughing and screaming out the contents. I was so embarrassed that I didn’t just throw it in the bin, I set it on fire and watched as the pages lit up, content with knowing that it would never be read again. Unlike my 12-year-old self Natalya Lobanova publishes her diary for all to see. Natalya’s blog, Happy 2 B Sad, is a combination of illustrations and text that depict her life experiences. SPOOK chatted to Natalya about her blog and putting her life on the net.
SPOOK: Why did you start Happy 2 B Sad?
Natalya: It was an absolute accident. I just wrote a bunch of things then posted them on my BlogSpot and then someone found them and posted them on Tumblr and they were popular, so I thought “Okay, I will make this into a project”.
SPOOK: Are your illustrations based on your own life experiences?
Natalya: Yep!
SPOOK: Do you use your blog as a type of journal?
Natalya: Yeah, absolutely.
SPOOK: How did you get into illustrating?
Natalya: I never really thought of Happy 2 B Sad as illustrating and I’ve never really done any illustrating formally. I did an art foundation course at CSM last year, but I specialised in painting anyway. This year I’m not even studying art. I’m doing a degree in Philosophy and Politics. I’ve just always done lots of drawings and then I put the drawings up on the web and here we are now!
SPOOK: What do you think it is that makes people relate to you work?
Natalya: I guess it’s just because it’s so inward looking, everyone can relate to that. Everyone is inward looking or at least has been at some point in their life.
SPOOK: What comes first, the words or the illustrations?
Natalya: I don’t know, ideas just come as a nugget of indefinable mind stuff and then it’s your job to turn it into something physical and comprehensible to other people. Nuggets of mind stuff come first.
SPOOK: What do you hope to achieve through Happy 2 B Sad?
Natalya: Maybe a better outlook on life? A lessening of my neuroticism? I never set out to achieve anything. It’s just therapeutic. Every time someone likes it, it comes as a surprise. The fact that I got any recognition from Happy 2 B Sad is a very, very nice bonus.
SPOOK: Who or what do you look to for inspiration?
Natalya: I really don’t look for inspiration consciously, it’s just a running dialogue in my head and then some bits I deem good enough to write down. Which I guess just means that inspiration comes from day to day life.
SPOOK: What’s the most challenging part of Happy 2 B Sad?
Natalya: Probably the fact that people I know in real life, including my mother, can easily read what I write and maybe guess who or what it’s about. Something like this makes you very vulnerable. Thankfully, if anyone ever confronts me or assumes one of the drawings are about them I can just accuse them of being egotistical and tell them not everything is about them. It hasn’t happened yet but I’m prepared.
SPOOK: How long has the hard copy of the zine been available?
Natalya: Since July? I think.
SPOOK: What’s in the future for your zine?
Natalya: I’m going to take a wild stab and say there may be a second issue. Maybe.
SPOOK: Which media platform do you prefer, the hard copy of your zine or the blog?
Natalya: The zine isn’t quite like the blog because it isn’t just drawings but a collection of different mediums and other people’s works so I’m probably less emotionally involved in it despite the amount of time and effort I spend making it. But it is nice to have something physical to actually hold. When a project is entirely online it feels like it’s not real and exists only in this other dimension known as the internet. The zine is really just a physical extension of the blog though. I don’t really differentiate between the two, they still go under the same project title.
SPOOK: Describe Happy 2 B Sad in 3 words
Natalya: happy toby sad? Happy tubey sad? Happy 2 b sad? 2 is a number and doesn’t count. Something along those lines.
