Welcome!

Welcome to my monthly newsletter and many thanks for reading! 

I’ve been thinking of ways to engage on a deeper level, away from the Instagram posts lost to the algorithm’s shuffle (though I admit this is largely on me). While I don’t doubt the power of one quick image, it’s really only 15% of a finished work’s story. What I love more than the allure of a striking piece of art is learning about the other 85%: the process, the inspiration, the narrative, and the reflections that serve as its foundation.

That’s my hope here with this newsletter, to share with you my works in progress, artists or paintings I am drawn to, the people, places, things that inspire me, raw sketches from various notebooks, and connections to other creatives in my community. It’s also part of a larger effort to integrate art into my everyday and away from the sporadic bursts of motivation for only a few paintings a year. 

So, I’m so glad you’re here, and thank you for embarking on this journey with me! 

Balance

I learned about Pablo Picasso’s Guernica in high school,  in the context of the importance of the artistic process. A few weeks ago I was able to see it in person while on a trip to Spain with my mom. Recalling the numerous sketches (at least 45!)  Picasso did before painting, one cannot question how intentionally he made his choices . Within those choices was a call for balance, particularly important in monochromatism. The blacks and greys and whites are all, of course, purposefully jarring, but where and what to make light and dark when nothing in the painting is actually representational but still demands balance? 

I laugh a little because Pablo’s Guernica was an impassioned commentary on the facism of Spain and the world falling to dictators–do we really ever learn from history?  While I don’t particularly want to answer that, what I would like to know is the art in finding a balance between the lightness and darkness in life as it is now. Life, like Guernica, can feel like a distorted nightmare, but to see where the light can balance the dark and allow the two to coexist, that’s what I’m working toward in myself. How do you find balance in a time of tumult?

WIP

May is keeping me quite busy! I’m prepping for another art market later this month and bringing back the vibrant produce. I wanted to focus my energy on work that feels solely light and joyful, particularly following a static heavy winter. These small still lifes don’t demand much but wholly satisfy my obsession for rich color. Are there any particular fruits or vegetables you’d like to see? 

From the notebook

Here are the beginning stages of the planning process for my current commission–a 60th birthday gift for a client's mother. The painting centers around a picture of the mother when she was 5 years old, just arriving in the United States from Korea to meet her new American family. I find such melancholic wonder in honoring our child selves as adoptees (or immigrants for that matter), who we were then and the things we didn’t know we had to leave behind to become the people we are now. My hope for this painting is to serve as an homage for the mother, to fully reckon with all that’s lost while recognizing that it’s never too late to reclaim them in other ways. 

Of course I find myself excited for any new project, but I particularly love working on the ones that resonate deeply with me.

Upcoming

If you’re in the DMV area, this is where you can find me! 

Sari Sari Pop-Up Market: May 31

Self Portrait Workshop: June 7