Artist Statement
I Reach Home, I Am Serene
Astride the bull, I reach home.
The dawn has come.
In blissful repose within my thatched dwelling,
I have abandoned the whip and rope.
— From the seventh verse of Ten Bulls
In this series, I explore self-realization across time and place. Drawing from autobiographical memories of childhood and womanhood, I rediscover a sense of rest and contentment. My mixed media paintings—created with muk ink, graphite, acrylic ink, and paint on Korean mulberry paper and wood panel—merge fragments of past and present. Only Poise is painted in oil on canvas. These works weave together memories from Busan, Korea, and the landscapes of Newfoundland and Labrador, bridging the two places I call home.
This project also visualizes the artistic journey of a Korean-Canadian woman artist in Newfoundland and Labrador. To dissolve the boundaries of time and space, I layer multiple perspectives and use void spaces to bind experiences together.
Traditional Korean painting is a versatile form that encompasses landscapes, still life, and portraits. A defining feature is its use of negative space—not as emptiness but as an active element that balances the composition. Another characteristic is the use of multiple perspectives, offering depth and complexity rather than a singular viewpoint. Korean painting does not merely depict reality; it seeks to convey an idea. In my work, I integrate these traditions with the conceptualization of Zen, where fleeting day trips become moments of renewal, and a young woman’s journey unfolds through time and space in search of self-realization.
Through this series, I seek a woman’s perspective, challenging dominant paradigms in art history and creating space for the “othered” woman. As an immigrant artist in Newfoundland and Labrador, the act of identifying myself in both past and present worlds become essential—a process of opening oneself to self-realization.