Soony's Statement for Little Life

The Little Life


I was happy when I did something in art class as a child. One day, my art teacher saw my potential in art, but I could not take the chance to focus my energy into art. My family could not pay for art school in Korea, and I went another way for a long time. I majored in Korean language and literature in college, but I could not give up my passion for painting.

Eventually, I got the chance to reveal my matured passion for art in America. I have longed to be an artist since I was a child, and now I have the chance. I have always been attracted to still life painting that shows that little things have multiple meanings in daily life. Still life painting shows those little things that have symbolic references to my life. I regard each subject that I choose to paint as alive regardless of whether it is actually living or inanimate. For example, I may think about an object in relation to people or things in my life. I use objects in my paintings to see metaphors to the world around me.

I use the energy from each vegetable, fruit, ceramic, and plant to see meaning. I have started searching for the themes of my painting. I have developed my painting as a way of teaching myself. I prefer to paint objects at their real size or somewhat bigger than their real size. Painting objects larger than they are allows me to amplify the little beauty in any object. The visual elements that fascinate me in a painting are rhythm, color, reflection, and light. I am also fascinated by the paintings that show a realistic image when viewed from a distance, but when I move closer, I can still see a lot of small structures. And I enjoy illustrating the little things on my works.

I keep on teaching myself by painting. I paint because it defines who I am, who I long to be. I am a mother, a housewife, and an art student whose fingertips smell like Korean food mixed with the scent of oil paints. The years of learning in SIUC have helped me to obtain the necessary skills and teachings that I need to achieve my dream. And my dream is as simple as, as big as how it was when the art teacher in Korea saw my love and potential for art. My dream is to paint, to spend the other half of my life with the dirty fingernails, to show the small but deep love I have for this world, to cherish the little things in my life with my brush, to live with passion and to keep it real with myself. Even when the time plays its oldest tune and the wrinkles lie on my skin and stay gently, I will keep on painting, because being a painter is my lust, my hope and my own pursuit of happiness.