2 Worlds
20” x 16 1/4”
A piece developed from my side sketches in science class. While listening to all the lectures about diverse organisms,
I sketched colorful organisms that might live around the world. In order to have the pop-up effect,
I superglued foams under certain characters.
Imperial
12 1/2” x 28 “ (19 1/2”: top)
Visible racism still happens to this day, which inspired my first piece of art, Imperial. Alone in the center, shredded portrait pieces with the paper mache butterflies symbolize the brokenness of how people treat others, the butterflies being there giving them hope for the unfairness of inequality. Painted with imperial red acrylic paint represents the history behind how people were treated, killed.
Abyss
L: 14 1/4” x 19” R: 12” x 18”
I created this diptych based on my imagination of an abyss. The right illustration is the zoomed-in version of one of the fish eyes from the left illustration. I wanted to create multiple worlds in different sizes and styles in the same space.
Dusk Till Dawn
7 1/2” x 11” (both)
Diptych croquis while I was waiting in line for the subway and a cafe. There were so many details that I wanted to catch for the cafe that I sat in one place to draw all the customers but the subway had a different atmosphere where everything was moving so fast. This caused the placements to be random and have a lot of incomplete body parts with strong strokes. After drawing all the people from outside, I painted the colors when I came back home.
Save Yourself
11 1/4” x 18” (both)
I created another diptych, shown on the left in New York with a comparison of California. After visiting busy streets in New York, the architectural background and energy inspired me. In NY, people wear smiling animal masks to cover up their emotions no matter how much they suffer. By flipping the piece upside down, I created the bunny falling from a building to flying like a hero. It expresses hope for everybody to be their own hero rather than waiting for one. NY was a fun yet slow place to relax in, unlike CA. California emblematizes the slowness like a snail.
태극
18” x 10 3/4” (both)
As a Korean American, I am very interested in Korean History ever since 4th grade. To honor the long history, I wanted to paint the painful history of Korea dedicating to the period when Japan colonized Korea for 45 years. The red is the violence and the pain the country went through and the blue is the beauty of Korea's traditional fairy tale that contained many meanings. The purple tiger, blended with red and blue and the representative animal of Korea is another symbolism that protects the girl at night with the goblin light.
Bluebeard
12” x 16”
Introducing the Bluebeard theme painting, animals are easily sacrificed for human greed and hunger. The story of Bluebeard consists of him murdering his six wives, in the end, the seventh wife opening the sacred door, saved by her brothers. Just like the pair in the piece running towards the door, it symbolizes how humans run away from their problems. The blue octopus and mixed animal-shaped table bones imply the natural disaster and the after effect that humans have done.
The Twisted Perspective
19” x 24”
A piece influenced by the Rape of Prosperina made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini slowly emerges the red and blue. The upper left image is a type of romantic aesthetic where people mistake lovers hugging each other instead of a statue representing a scene of the tragedy in Greek mythology. This piece is revealing the horror of rape and how social media ignorantly appreciates the art without understanding the true story behind it.
Surfing
18” x 23 3/4”
I drew my friend surfing on a toilet. I used yellow and blue, the complementary colors to emphasize the wave flow. I also drew a bunch of ducks with legs and high heels on for fun.
Little Mermaid
15" x 21"
Self-portrait. One of my favorite stories, Hans Christian Andersen's Little mermaid. I drew the ending scene where the mermaid slowly turns into bubbles. I drew three different types of bubbles to show the separation of every cell of her body.
Neila
12” x 16 1/2”
Portrait of my friend. It was my first completed piece that fulfilled the possibility as an artist in the future.
Brianna
12” x 16 1/2”
Portrait of my friend. I explored by taking a portrait of my friend with a sticker on her face.
십장생
15” x 21”
Self-portrait inspired by Klimt. Self-portrait inspired by Klimt. I painted the two pairs of deer divided and embroidery like on the gold curtain symbolizing one of the ten longevity. A piece with Korean historical symbolism embedded along with my self-portrait.
Temptation
12" x 18"
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some… Genesis 3:4-6
The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs
12" x 18"
After tasting the gold, she threw herself in greed. She has blinded herself in danger. The more she reached for it, the deeper she was falling into the mud.
Fantasia
24” x 16 1/2”
This was an unintentional piece to waste all my old highlighters. While I was drawing the piece, I listened to indie and rock music jammed all into one to create visual chaos.
Bare King
24" x 18"
'Bare King': In chess, the bare king is a game position where one player has only the king remaining. In this piece, there are unrealistic checkered surfaces combined to show different plays on each white pieces against black pieces. Symbolizing the good and bad with a little bit of cliche, the pieces represent how one good (white king) is still alive although it seems like the evil (black pieces) is winning. Unlike the chess pieces, the players are placed on the very top of the painting. This makes the different adjacent surfaces combined to create a scene. A goat and a lamb representing the devil and Jesus, their game seems a never-ending game with the countless trials going on under their dimension. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2:22 In the short term, humans are weak to sin but there is still a chance to 'win' the game since God is so powerful in nature.
War Zone
both 11” x 14”
'War Zone': This piece is my attempt to describe the invisible war and the visible war after mass. War makes a great impact on human nature and it repeats in our history till today. Korean war (right) is one of the war my grandmother vividly described her experience to me. The war is still visibly ongoing in Korea that we are separated in north and south that every Korean suffered from huge grief for losing loved ones. Adding on, the separation cause families to not know thier separated families' survival. Similar to the visible war, the war our entire world today is fighting all against individually is represented on the left. As the pandemic has been unsettling for a while, every health worker suffers alone to this day. Hearing witnesses of workers struggling with emotional breakdowns and a depressing photograph of a refrigerated truck containing dead bodies stressed and inspired me. The word decrepitude describes the emotional distress individual fights through.
Good and Evil Fruit
14 1/4” x 22”
I drew society today drenched in sin climbing to the light to represent people are fighting for good yet having so much temptation surrounding them. Using my favorite color that is the mix of red and blue (good and evil) to add a symbolic meaning. Also, snakes are the symbolism of temptation like it tempted Eve to bite into sin. One of my favorite faith-based pieces, Good and Evil fruit.
