We all feel blue sometimes, it’s just natural and human. Some of us feel it more than others, but everyone does at least a little bit. It’s healthy to acknowledge these feelings rather than to try and press them down, when they’ll just pop out in other, less desirable ways. Thai painter Nicejoy has settled on pouring his heart out through vivid colored paints in comical curves and bends. He’s expressing sorrow with a cheerful visual language, both as a way to escape into a soft and warm world, but also as a way to ease us into these heavy emotions.

Nicejoy, whose real name is Pattaradanai Motim, is the creator of Blueboo, an easily recognizable character that he manifested to express his personal sadness. The character has a literal hole in his chest and is often teary-eyed, but his blue skin is the color of a clear, unpolluted sky at high noon. And he frolics about in bubbly gardens alive with weightless butterflies and ladybugs. Sometimes Blueboo wears an expression of wonder as he stares at these pleasure gardens, other times he lies exhausted in its comforting embrace.

Nicejoy started the painting series as a way to cope with the passing of beloved pets, and the foliage that frequents his canvases is based on those growing in his backyard. But the themes are universal and have evolved beyond exact meaning. An aching heart only differs in intensity. The flowers have come to represent the cycle of death and life. Our remains, after all, may become the soil that nurtures a wondrous flower. It’s a practical interpretation of reincarnation. The act of painting itself is therapeutic as well. Nicejoy says that it offers introspection, giving him a way to explore his inner self. The main goal of his work, in the end, is to say that we can carry sadness and still find joy. Hopefully his paintings help others do just that.