I’m a visual artist primarily working in painting and drawing. I was born in Busan, and studied for my BFA in Seoul, followed by an MFA in London, UK. I first relocated to San Francisco in 2018 from South Korea and am now based in the Seattle area.

As a child, I spent many hours quietly on my own, drawing imaginary mushroom villages or treehouses in sketchbooks. I think I was trying to create a visual space where I could wander and contemplate the world around me.

During my studies in London, I immediately fell in love with the drawings and paintings of Renaissance masters in museums. There was a major exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci at the National Gallery, and among many remarkable paintings, I was most drawn to his intimate hand drawings and writings on paper. As I followed the lines made by his hand, I had the strong impression that I could directly trace the thoughts in his mind.

This interest in drawing led me to the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, and Albrecht Dürer, among others. Throughout my time studying abroad, I visited museums whenever I could, closely observing the Northern Renaissance works and incorporating elements that resonated with me into my own paintings.

What fascinated me most about their drawings was the sense of familiarity I felt. The surreal forms they created often resembled the kinds of images I had been drawing intuitively. This made me think about how artists from different historical and cultural contexts could share similar sensibilities, and led me to believe that there is a shared unconscious realm that can be expressed visually.

Based on this, I began creating works in which these intuitively drawn images come together to form a mindscape. Drawing has remained my primary method, as it allows me to translate internal imagery into a visual structure.

To begin with, I usually create backgrounds using acrylic washes that evoke the atmosphere of Renaissance drawings I encountered in museums. On top of these, I use pastel pencil on canvas or pen and ink on paper to draw intuitively, allowing my hand to move freely and bring out images from my unconscious and imagination.

The island and ocean landscapes in my work often emerge naturally through this process. They are frequently rooted in the seascapes I grew up with in Busan, where the ocean was always present in my surroundings.

On top of these landscape structures, I incorporate images drawn from everyday moments I have documented on my phone, as well as images from works by Masters I admire. These are often small details or scenes that caught my attention—things I found interesting or thought I might want to draw someday.

When I am working in front of the canvas, I revisit these collected images and select them intuitively in the moment, bringing them into the composition based on what feels right at that time. After building up layers of detail, I consider a painting complete when I no longer feel the need to add or search for new images within the surface.

After moving to the U.S., the vast landscapes of the West Coast and its national parks had a profound impact on my work. Before this, my paintings were more centered on imagined inner worlds. Encountering these environments, however, felt as if my imagined mindscapes had come to life, allowing me to contemplate surreal landscapes both internally and in reality.

Though I often felt like an outsider moving between foreign cities, the sublime nature here helped ground me as an artist, much like my connection to Renaissance ideals in London. This experience shifted my practice from purely imagined compositions toward a dialogue between observation and imagination. The landscapes I encountered began to reshape my sense of space, color, and atmosphere. These experiences have become the foundation of my recent work, where I bring together personal memories, collected images, and intuitive drawing.

Through this process, my work has become more open-ended. I am less interested in constructing fixed narratives, and more focused on creating spaces where viewers can move through the image and form their own associations—where memory, emotion, and place can intersect in different ways.

I feel most present and alive when I am creating. I draw and paint to experience that state, and I find it meaningful when my work suggests unexpected connections between strangers.

For me, getting recognition as an artist in the Seattle area has been the most meaningful part of this award. It wasn’t easy to navigate the art scene in the U.S., especially in Seattle, where I didn’t have an educational background or a network I belonged to.

Receiving this award has been both encouraging and affirming. It has helped me feel more confident in my work, and has also allowed me to build connections within the local art community that I had long hoped to be part of.

I think it’s important to continue supporting artists from diverse backgrounds, especially those who may not already have access to established networks. Creating more accessible pathways can help bring more voices into the community.