Autogenesis
“Autogenesis” is made using Korean pigments on canvas. I use a thin and soft canvas, so it looks like a traditional Asian painting on silk or paper. My paintings are closely aligned with abstract art, but they are still not completely abstract because I feel that this style is insufficient to express my ideas and imagination. Actually, I start paintings with an abstract process. After many layers, however, images begin to emerge that look like landscapes or creatures under the sea. In my paintings on canvas, each layer is connected to the underlying lines and layers.
My life connects to the past and present, and it will connect to the future. I use many layers because they are similar to my memories. I have many relationships and experiences, and all help make me who I am now. Painting for me is less about a realistic depiction and more about translating the expressionistic vision or essence that originally inspired me.
In my work, I paint backgrounds without thinking about the color. I pick up the first color. Then, I paint the shape that is naturally inspired by that color. I look at that shape and make several layers. I concentrate on the emotion of the colors. For example, when I am excited and energized, I pick up a bright color, and start painting. The color is my feeling and expression.
“Autogenesis” is made using Korean pigments on canvas. I use a thin and soft canvas, so it looks like a traditional Asian painting on silk or paper. My paintings are closely aligned with abstract art, but they are still not completely abstract because I feel that this style is insufficient to express my ideas and imagination. Actually, I start paintings with an abstract process. After many layers, however, images begin to emerge that look like landscapes or creatures under the sea. In my paintings on canvas, each layer is connected to the underlying lines and layers.
My life connects to the past and present, and it will connect to the future. I use many layers because they are similar to my memories. I have many relationships and experiences, and all help make me who I am now. Painting for me is less about a realistic depiction and more about translating the expressionistic vision or essence that originally inspired me.
In my work, I paint backgrounds without thinking about the color. I pick up the first color. Then, I paint the shape that is naturally inspired by that color. I look at that shape and make several layers. I concentrate on the emotion of the colors. For example, when I am excited and energized, I pick up a bright color, and start painting. The color is my feeling and expression.
Come Empty, Return Empty
I believe in reincarnation, meaning we live in the present, in the past and will live again. In my paintings, each line and dot has a different meaning for me within this spiritual cycle. Each gesture represents one of my lives and connects my past, present and future. Sometimes my life goes smoothly, but sometimes it is arduous. My life is empty when it is finished. The larger theme of my art and the title of one of my recent ink on paper projects was “Come Empty, Return Empty.” This Buddhist philosophy is true to my beliefs because I didn’t bring anything into the world when I was born, and I can’t take anything when I die. I believe that living and dying are repeated. However, although life starts out as nothing, it is not lost. Memories will be part of that life, good or bad.
“Come Empty, Return Empty,” my work on rice paper, includes landscape, as well as figurative and other subject matter. For example, I chose a tree because it grows many times and it has many experiences. It represents a natural cycle of renewal.
To create “Come Empty, Return Empty” I uses a type of watercolor paint from Korea to create lines and brushstrokes on 2” X 5” rice paper. The paper is a symbol of my mind, because I draw every day and the work puts my thoughts into marks and images. The gestures are dots, lines and planes. The piece of paper is really my journal or diary. Each sheet is both an individual artwork and a unit within the larger artwork of all of the drawings combined. Each image represents my thoughts and feelings in my specific moment and all of them together are an open and changing collection of my ideas.
I believe in reincarnation, meaning we live in the present, in the past and will live again. In my paintings, each line and dot has a different meaning for me within this spiritual cycle. Each gesture represents one of my lives and connects my past, present and future. Sometimes my life goes smoothly, but sometimes it is arduous. My life is empty when it is finished. The larger theme of my art and the title of one of my recent ink on paper projects was “Come Empty, Return Empty.” This Buddhist philosophy is true to my beliefs because I didn’t bring anything into the world when I was born, and I can’t take anything when I die. I believe that living and dying are repeated. However, although life starts out as nothing, it is not lost. Memories will be part of that life, good or bad.
“Come Empty, Return Empty,” my work on rice paper, includes landscape, as well as figurative and other subject matter. For example, I chose a tree because it grows many times and it has many experiences. It represents a natural cycle of renewal.
To create “Come Empty, Return Empty” I uses a type of watercolor paint from Korea to create lines and brushstrokes on 2” X 5” rice paper. The paper is a symbol of my mind, because I draw every day and the work puts my thoughts into marks and images. The gestures are dots, lines and planes. The piece of paper is really my journal or diary. Each sheet is both an individual artwork and a unit within the larger artwork of all of the drawings combined. Each image represents my thoughts and feelings in my specific moment and all of them together are an open and changing collection of my ideas.