Year: 2022

The Heartwarming Art of Pandesaii

In this special interview, Pandesaii captured the hearts of many due to her beautiful art featuring girls crushing and falling in love with each other.

Pandesaii captured the hearts of many due to her beautiful art featuring girls crushing and falling in love with each other.

Based in the Philippines, Sai or known as Pandesaii, captured the hearts of many Yuri and GL fans due to her beautiful art featuring innocent girls crushing or falling in love with each other in a Filipino setting.

I discovered her works sometime during the height of the pandemic, and every single time I saw her art pass my feed, or on my timeline, I couldn’t help but spend a minute or two just admiring the warmness each art gives. I am so honored to be given this opportunity to ask her a few questions about her inspiring works of art.

The Lily Cat: Before I start with the questions, I want to let you know that I feel so ecstatic that I am doing this interview with you. I admit that I have been such a huge fan of your work for so long. Can you tell me how you started making art?

Pandesaii: Thank you so much for having me! It feels nice to be interviewed by someone really passionate about GL. I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been that weird artist child, I never really excelled in academics and I have dyslexia which made writing and etc. hard for me.

Illustration was the only way I could express myself truly so I started taking it seriously very early. I’ve been painting since I was in grade school and started traditionally training from 6th grade until 4th year and went to art school after that.

The Lily Cat: Most of the art you share on your lovely FB page is mainly centered on Filipino girls’ love. I admit that it always gives me kilig vibes every time I see it on my feed. Has this been your main focus since?

Pandesaii: I didn’t really start drawing GL until college, I was originally aiming to be a concept artist for a big western company, it was my goal since childhood but as I grew older and learned more about myself and the industry, I started shifting my goals and art to what feels genuine to me. The lack of local Sapphic representation too made me sad and I’ve made illustrating more GL my goal since.

The Lily Cat: Every artist has an inspiration in doing what they love doing. I’m curious who or what inspired you to do these lovely creations?

Pandesaii: My main inspiration is mostly my gf/partner Ten, this might be shocking to some people but I’m not really the romantic type, I never took non-fiction love seriously until I met Ten. They gave me flowers, took me to dates, took care of me and they made me feel like I was genuinely in love for the first time in my life. The emotions that I show in my art are mostly from what I feel when I remember our good times.

Another inspiration was the things that I didn’t get to experience due to self-hatred and denial. I draw for my inner teen who never really had representation that could’ve helped me accept myself earlier, I also draw hoping that it can help a young Sapphic that’s currently struggling with their identity.

The Lily Cat: Has the pandemic affected you in a way in creating your art? Knowing that your GL works were made/published during a very tough time.

Pandesaii: The pandemic had a huge effect on me and my art. It arrived after I graduated college; when I was hoping that I can finally be free to explore the world and meet other people like me but the pandemic shackled me back to my childhood home, the place that I was trying to leave.

I used art as an escape. Harana, the piece that started it all was made through yearning. The huge time gaps between the works that I put out were also because of the pandemic. It’s been hard but I’m just currently hoping for the best.

The Lily Cat: I’m curious. What GL media (anime, manga, webtoon, and so on) are your faves at the moment?

Pandesaii: Ohh I’m not sure if I have new faves at the moment but I just recently caught up to Relationship Guidelines! I am absolutely in love with the art style and excited for the side stories. I’m also currently waiting for new updates of Whispering You A Love Song! While Opium, Getting to Know Grace, and Soul Mates are on my to-read list.

The Lily Cat: Anything you want to say to your growing followers? Also, where can they find you?

Pandesaii: Omg aaaa hello! Please give me some recommendations, I would love to explore more gl media and I hope ya’ll are doing well, you can also reach out to me mostly on Twitter and Instagram (@pandesaii) thank you so much for having me! Also please continue supporting local GL artist!

If you love her art, you may also consider supporting her here. Look forward to more interviews and features only here on The Lily Cat!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts here and on Facebook. I’m also on Twitter just in case you’re interested.

Support The Lily Cat in providing news, reviews, and features by leaving a cup of coffee.

The Lily Cat Editorials – The Passion That Matters

I do admit though that it is also passion that made me do the wrong choices, say the wrong words, and ended with a lot of regrets.

I do admit though that it is also passion that made me do the wrong choices, say the wrong words, and ended with a lot of regrets.

From Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE

Let’s talk about passion. When you hit up its definition, it is defined as a strong and barely controllable emotion.

Who would’ve thought that my passion for a certain genre and the desire to write about it has led me to make this blog has been running and part of my life for years?

When I announced my departure from the FB platform a while back, there were some comments left by people who I have been online friends over the years or might have known due to the FB groups that I used to be active in years back.  As much as that was how The Lily Cat got so much attention from fans, I admit I have slowly grown sick of the platform. Part of it is due to bad experiences from some people who are on this platform and it is just that I have reached that point in my life that the platform has been too much for me.

I totally forgot when was the last time I was so active interacting with FB groups lately. I think the last one was like 2019 when I did a semi-hiatus in community stuff. I will be honest that I wanted to put that part of my life left in the past. It was fun while it lasted, but I think it’s about time that I would focus on the things that make me happy at my own pace and in my own time. I would still be with the communities I cherish, but I need to prioritize my passions from now on.

I do admit though that it is also passion that made me do the wrong choices, say the wrong words, and ended with a lot of regrets. Sometimes I think that I should have done better or I should have said things better. I wasn’t the best person ever. I try to be. I go no longer mend that permanent emotional scar when I ended up being used, abused, and worse being left out for someone better.

Life is crazy sometimes. I seriously wanted to let go of being that Serena who is so vocal and passionate about the things she loves, as well as be that echo chamber for people who cannot express it. But, after so much thinking, maybe I am not that person anymore. I wasn’t aware that this energy and effort that put me in the first place has slowly pulled me back into a darkness that I never wanted to be in anymore. I am tired of being in this endless cycle of self-hatred when almost I have no love to give for myself.

So, what am I trying to say here?

It is okay to do things you love and share them with others. However, do not give so much love and trust to these people immediately. Just because they jive with you, just because they are friendly with you, you never know what their full intentions are. These kinds of people are one of the primary reasons why I had to step back for a while. I lost a huge part of myself that I am slowly patching up things and make-up for what I missed.

So here we are. It is passion that brought this little blog back and pretty much all of my thoughts on Yuri and my other fandoms will probably just be here. There are a lot of things to catch up on—and I can’t wait to share them all with you.

Take care of yourself. Make that passion of something you cherish the most be that flame that would keep you going. It doesn’t matter if that light is weak, it will grow. As each day goes by, you would realize how far you’ve become and you might inspire and light up people’s lamps along the way too.

Thank you for still dropping by. I may not be the best content creator, reviewer, or critic, but I am just happy to share all these things—news, reviews, updates, and thoughts with you.

Keep that flame burning. Keep that passion growing. You matter.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts here and on Facebook. I’m also on Twitter just in case you’re interested.

Support The Lily Cat in providing news, reviews, and features by leaving a cup of coffee.