I tell stories through
characters, images,
and movement.

The Grand Canyon was my family’s first vacation destination. I vividly remember the majestic landscape as well as the colorful rocks. Rather than the details, I wanted to focus on the colors in my memory and express it simply and directly through acrylic paint.

My self-portrait expresses who I am. The left shows how I see myself, the center shows how others see me, and finally, how I am presented to others. Through these three views I wanted to express myself.

Ceramic is one of the oldest materials known to human history which reflects the ancient civilizations. This inspired me to create a cup and mask with this material. Cups were tools that the ancient people used to interpret and express their observations of animals. The design motive of the mask is based on dokkaebi, a Korean traditional goblin. Dokkaebi is a traditional folk symbol which is a supernatural being that resembles humans but possesses both good and evil. To express this complex character of a dokkaebi, I included not one but multiple facial expressions and emotions in this work.

In the same given situation, there are a variety of expressions in my face as well as others’ as well. I started to experience those kinds of emotions these days. Since when did I start smiling when things don’t go well? I expressed this through drawing to show that not everyone can show the same facial expression.

These are two pieces that were inspired during my stay in South Korea. Bukchon is very complex piece that displays a beautiful harmony of our ancestors’ traditional alleys with the golden sunset. In contrast, Myeong-Dong is a piece that reflects impressionism that expresses the main street in the middle of a crowded area. Having the two scenes aligned with each other, it is my intention to contrast the past traditional and the modern urban view of Seoul.

The Matryoshka doll is famous for becoming smaller and lighter the more you open it. However, the weight of life starts as light as a feather but becomes heavier as we progress. I wanted to show the weight of life that a human bears, which increases gradually as life progresses.

It was my intention to combine a butterfly with a clock to express the co-existence of freedom and order. The butterfly represents change, freedom, and potential while the clock symbolizes time, order, and structure. I wanted to combine these two symbols to express that creativity and hope can still exist. This piece reflects my belief that genuine growth takes place when freedom and order form a harmony.

I decided to use one of the most dearest people in my life as my subject: my mother. I wanted to express the time that my mother dedicated to raise me while emphasizing her youth. Through this work, I wanted to display that time may change the appearance of an individual but the love and dedication remains the same. I would like to dedicate this heart of gratitude to my mother.

Through the diver jumping into the structures of the city, I expressed myself aggressively jumping into the ‘moment of challenge’, which reflects life’s structure and limits. Instead of a smooth surface of a swimming pool, I wanted to illustrate my anxiety and courage of leaving the comforts of life and diving into the hard and rigorous challenges of a new environment. Through this work, I wanted to express the collision of my own ways with reality.

This work was inspired by a photograph I took at a park fountain. Though it was right next to a trash can, I was moved by the fact that people still threw trash on the flower field. I felt the strong irony of the irresponsibility of mankind as the beautiful nature was ruined by trash. I drew a ‘snake’ that resembled the form and direction of trash. A snake is a symbol of fear to humans, but in this artwork, the snake is a message of fear that nature is sending to humans. This shows anxiety and damage caused by human carelessness, and also sends a warning that what we discard will come back to us.

This watercolor piece is an expression of a large green bottle that is surrounded by a fruit and its stem. I maximized the character of watercolor to express the transparency and smoothness of the green water bottle while maintaining the soft nature of the fruit and its stem.