Sassafras De Bruyn (born 1990) is a visual artist based in Destelbergen, Ghent, Belgium. An illustrator with a heart full of stories, intertwining inner & outer worlds in dreamy images.
Her multi-layered drawings convey a sense of ambiguïty, poetry and dreaminess, rooted in real-life themes that tell us something about what it means to be human in our world. They exude warm colours, absurdity, silliness, unlikely heroes, stepping outside the norm and the underrated power of vulnerability and sensitivity. Through surreal and symbolic elements, her drawings let memories, dreams and feelings seep through the cracks of the outside reality. Sensitively interweaving inner and outer worlds, her images can often be read as metaphors.
Her illustrations show a fascination for shedding pretence and masks, searching for the true nature of things. Inspired by nature, mythology and psychology, they exude a love for big stories. In our economy driven, overstimulating world, books and stories are slow places to dive into when we need to process reality, find meaning and understand our place in this world.
Sassafras studied Illustration at St Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp, where she graduated in 2013. The avalanche of artistic possiblities and experiment throughout the years guided her in purifiyng her own visual language.
She illustrates and writes both for children and adults.
Photo @Inge Kinnet