Life Connection

We live in the convenience and abundance of material civilization. However, we suffer from being separated from what truly constitutes us. From the mental illness that separates me from myself, to the environmental pollution and climate crisis resulting from the separation of human and non-human. What is needed now is to restore the fragmented whole, so I focus on connection.

Living in Seojong and becoming closer to nature has changed me a lot. I touched small grass and insects beneath my feet, and hugged large trees by the river. I watched the water undulate or freeze depending on the season. The sound of countless ice shards clashing on the Bukhan River in the middle of winter was mysterious and beautiful, like music from a star other than Earth.

Meanwhile, my vision, which had been separated into several pieces, gradually connected. I often choked up with the feeling of having regained something precious. It was a night when I was trudging towards home. I was the only person on the road, but countless grass bugs were crying at the same time. They were all announcing their existence to the world. Suddenly I realized. They and I were fundamentally the same. The same goes for the flock of frogs crying like pouring rain, or the grass growing endlessly. We are a community that blooms and falls in various forms and creates a flow together. I now know that there is no such thing as being 'alone'.

I mainly paint moments of realizing this connectivity and newly discovered aspects of nature. It's because my heart fluctuates in those places. Some lives take on special meaning for me. After having a dream during a difficult time about a school of salmon flying in the sky, salmon became a symbol of overcoming and courage.

In an era where AI generates images, I dream of living paintings filled with vitality. I wish the rustling sound of Hanji and the sound of brushstrokes could be heard in my paintings. Tearing, pasting, painting, letting it seep, and piecing the fragments back together. Hoping a healthy vitality is imbued in the rough flow.