a statement

I think about making art as meditation and a way of finding my Identity. I struggle to find my Identity because all living organisms, including humans, are born without their consent. Existing in this world was not our decision, but here we are, breathing. For me, Identity is something that is not granted, but something that needs to be established. That is why it is extremely important to ask ourselves who we are. Therefore, I choose to walk backwards—it is better to live my life looking back than to feel anxious about my unknown future. In this way I can establish my Identity so I do not feel empty. I look at life as a linear path towards death. As we walk along the path, we encounter the Future. I walk this linear path with my eyes looking back at my trails, to find a piece of my Identity. To me, the Past is something more rigid and solid than the Future because the Past is known to me already, but the Future remains unknown all the time. My artworks are reflections of my past. The Past makes us who we are today.

It is commonly known that we learn from everyday experience, train ourselves to adapt to the environment that surrounds us, and sometimes gain knowledge from the process of adaptation. Past experience plays a major role in forming an individual’s identity. Furthermore, if the individual is an artist, past experience is more likely to be reflected on pieces of art that are produced by the individual. That is basically the reason why having as various types of experiences as an individual can, making observations and analyzing the surroundings, and putting oneself in the suitable environment for learning are crucial. Today, for visual artists, learning from the surroundings has become more important, because art is everywhere, and it is changing rapidly. Visual art alone can take many different forms. It is in books, magazines, motion pictures, music, and it is on TV and the internet.

In a person’s life, complex emotions are present at all times. I state that due to my exceedingly emotional nature, and also my experience in South Korea, Canada, and the United States, my life is filled with emotions and different types of experiences. I had to live and survive alone in foreign countries since the age of 16, served in the Korean army as a member of Special Guard Team, as a military prison guard, and as a squad leader. I had at least one family member hospitalized for 15 long years of my life, and lost my mother in 2004. As an art student, I also have experience in producing various types of visual art such as painting, drawing, sculpture, hologram, robotics, photography, and 3D animation. Past years have turned my life into a library of various emotions and experiences, which is good for an artist.

In composition, I believe in diversity, unity, and balance. I start by deciding what colors to use, and then decide what type of emotion that the piece is going to evoke. After that, I look back at my personal experiences to remind myself of the time when I had that emotion. My personal emotions are expressed in order to visually establish my identity in the pieces. Color is one of the primary factors that I am greatly concerned about, regardless of the medium.

As a humanist, I am greatly fascinated by the fact that in many religious texts such as the Bible and Greek mythologies, humans are created to resemble gods. What do gods do? They create. We are not all sure if our ‘creator’ exists or not in reality, but we all know that religions are made by humans. Then, why would humans in those days come up with such religious texts telling us that humans resemble gods? I personally believe that it is because of the fact that we have an ability to create. We call ourselves the lord of all creation. Therefore, for me, creation is the most beautiful and humanistic thing to do. It is a way to be who we are.

I chose animation as my primary medium because of its expressive possibilities and inherent characteristics. Animation is an art form with infinite possibilities. It allows me to create an alternative world in a virtual space involving time. Through expression of emotions derived from my personal experience, and through use of editing, coloring and compositing, I seek to establish a unique and solid identity as an artist, and also, as an individual. In dictionaries, “to animate” means to give life. Through production of animation, we give life to something, just like gods in many religious texts do. Creating and giving life is the greatest thing a human can ever do.

a statement

I make art in order to explore and communicate about the nature of reality. Art allows me to make visible, tangible traces of strange moments of confusion, awe, and speechlessness. It creates the opportunity to engage in criticism of the severe disconnectedness of modern life. I am interested in art that creates the opportunity connect the mind to the sweating, substantial presence of the human body and the earth's natural processes of synthesis and decay.

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It is my goal as an artist to express my emotions, life and soul in every piece I do. When a viewer takes in my artwork, it is my goal to have my piece touch a little piece of their soul. This involvement will ultimately give the viewer and me a connection not many professions can give.

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The lasting impression is the thing that keeps one attracted. Art, either a physical object or an intangible idea, is a stamp in the mental facet of our bodies. Through concepts, expressions, statements, ect.; the relationship created, unlike any other, between an individual and multiple mediums can only be experienced through being in the presence of artwork. With this power it is everlastingly placed in the mind and subconsciously effecting other aspects of ones life.

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I consider myself an artist because I can create art that I am confident in and others appreciate too. Having this feeling makes me feel like I belong, like I made it as an artist. I love to make all kinds of art and find myself thinking about how I can turn anything I see into a piece of art that I could call my own. I create work that is both representational and abstract. By using bright, vivid colors I can invoke life and "fun" into my work.

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I am a writer, a poet, and a photographer. I make art because I love metaphors, word play, minor histories, telling stories, and eliciting smirks. Growing up as a middle class woman in pseudo-rural Alabama plays a large role in my work, as well as my undergraduate studies in English literature.

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i am an artist because it allows me to take the world i am a part of, put my own twist on it, and then create work that expresses my perceptions, feelings, emotions, frustrations, joys, etc.. and as i create, all those things going on inside my head are thrown out there into the world for others to connect with. whether they admire the work or feel the need to be critical of it is really secondary to that connection that art allows us to have with both the art itself, and the person who's inspired enough to create the work. art allows you to take what you have inside, that people might not know or understand about you, share it with the world and ultimately shape and influence your surroundings in whatever way you desire.

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I remember losing track of time as I looked across the cracking surface. The cracks were showing the layers underneath of what had come before. I hadn’t even seen one of my paintings that intensely yet. I walked up and stuck my nose into each brush stroke then stumbled back to look at the painting as a whole. I spent time looking at the calming ochre background with white stripes cutting vertically through the composition. I saw the stripes and their relationship to the gray bow like shape. The gray moved into the picture from behind the first stripe then in front of the next stripe. Looking through the gray arching bow there is a leaning black shape that is a spectator viewing everything from behind the scenes. I have gotten lost in Robert Motherwell’s “Wall Painting with Stripes” many times. Every time I think about how good it is to be with a painting for a period of time, looking back at its history, seeing how it looks different as I grow older, and each time searching for something I haven’t seen before.

I have always enjoyed the act of searching. I first realized the enjoyment while searching for comic books long before looking at paintings. The act of going through comics that are stacked into boxes would lead to the discovery of the perfect piece to add to my collection. My fingers and eyes would swiftly work through every box so as not to miss a hidden gem that I wasn’t even looking for. When I found something, I would examine every detail. These searches soon continued with music, books and all things of interest. I was always searching for that next part of my collection. Whenever I would stumble onto something new it would take over until it was all I collected. These in turn became different searches, each with a new discovery, which would lead to new searches.

This practice finds its way into my painting and drawing still today. While painting and drawing I’m often searching for new interests that lead me in different directions. After I find something of interest, I examine it in a serial manner. Whether it is working in black and white or working with different motifs, I often find ideas while searching for something else. I look intensely at shapes I’m collecting, stacking them closely from front to back. The shapes fight for position in front, trying not to be the ground. I have recently found myself looking at the most basic of shapes like the circle, square and triangle. I connect the shapes with lines and rectangles moving through the painting. The squares are cut into L’s that are reassembled, like pieces from Tetris. These shapes can change color, direction, opacity and size as they are put into place. My collections of shapes and interests will continue to change as I search for the next hidden gem.

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My art is a creative abstraction of life. I don't consider art on demand (pieces created on commission, for assignments, at request of others in any way) to be an accurate representation of my work. Pieces are not created with the goal to please anyone, including myself. They are merely a necessary exhalation of a moment's inspiration.

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Making art, for me, is a way to further explore how we see. My sources are everyday visual experiences of architecture and landscape but I am most interested in perceptions of space and not the actuality of it. History, imagination, even social anxieties can be projected onto a location. I hope to excavate these qualities of spaces and to interpret them as images that are a compression of time. I also want them to be understood as places where multiple histories and perspectives overlap.

I am a painter mostly and I am very invested in what it means to paint at a time when representation seems more real than reality. However, I reject the idea that painting has become symbolic of expression rather than expression in and of itself. I attempt to reveal my paintings as both object and image. This, I believe, opens up the possibilites for imagery while maintaining some self awareness.

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"Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it very well."

Stanley Marsh

Art is a word that makes most people tune out and it's almost always better not to use it. I guess that this is due to various cultural forces acting to separate people based on illusory class boundaries, but for better or worse, art has become a symbol of the schism between haves and have nots. Thankfully, meaningful and engaging art is returning to the public sphere, freeing itself from galleries requiring a master's degree or higher to put any context to their contents. I'm interested in creating work that contains levels of content, in public/visible space, while allowing an aesthetic entry point to those who may feel excluded by the many onanistic works of conceptual art of the recent decades.

Art is an act of peace, a representation of a society in balance that is committed to increasing the health and welfare of the global organism. I want to engage in this peaceful warfare as a way to assert the value of the culture we have spent so much time, energy and life to build. It is a testament to those passed who labored on behalf of future generations, allowing us to live in a better world.

With all that dramatic hyperbole out of the way, the real reason I do this is because it's better than having a job. It is a way to combine a variety of interesting areas of thought together. It allows the opportunity to remain curious about the world and avoid the routine that plagues modern man. Everyone's life clock is ticking fast, and I have never seen the point in doing anything under such rigid time constraints that isn't meaningful.

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I am a translator of scientific thought and theory into various areas of the digital art medium. I draw my inspiration from theoretical math and physics, astronomy, as well as modern computer electronics. The overarching goal of my work is to have my audience value these heavily conceptual scientific ideas by bridging the gap between scientific theory and artistic expression. My hope is to invoke new and unique ways of visualizing and thinking about technological frontiers, as well as inspire my audience to do the same, whether it’s being introduced to them for the first time, or presented in a new and distinctive way.

My work encompasses 3D computer models/animations as well as 2D animations and conceptual illustrations related to everything from cosmology on macroscopic scales, to string theory on microscopic scales. It’s also very important for me to tie together all the loose ends in a way that allows my audience to appreciate these concepts as I do. I hope to bring visually compelling and thought provoking pieces that shed an open light onto the forefront of theoretical science.

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I am interested in this, that and everything in between. I wonder why that guy is wearing two different socks? Who kicked over that port-o-potty? Was there someone in it? Why did they use two different types of pavement to build that new road? I always want to understand more about the decisions people make in this world which in turn affect everyone in one way or another.

My day job is a photojournalist, so my instincts as a photographer is to document the daily life of people. It is hard to push away from that at times. In my art photographs I try my best to break away from my standards of a photojournalist by at the very least looking for something that is not normally covered for a newspaper. Many of my art projects are still a documentation of daily life (like photojournalism), but I tend to focus in on the small topics of life that go without notice.

I am in the middle of documenting tip jars and the personalization of them. Some places have simple jars, while others have large tubs with cute or dumb sayings on them to entice the customer to toss in their spare change. Another project is the documentation of what is very close to most people but goes unseen: underground tunnels, area's above ceiling tiles, etc.

Artists Statements seem to be hand in hand with art in general. Always changing, always staying the same. I could look back on this artist statement in 10, 5, 2 years and be somewhere else completely in my mindset as an artists, but to me, that is such a big part of art. Some artists can go about doing the same style and be successful for a lifetime, while other artists always have to adapt and re-think themselves to propel their creativity. I don't know which mentality I will follow, but I doubt many other artists know either.

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Not many people can say they have lived on a floating city in the middle of an ocean. Well, I have, and one of the only things that kept my mind sane was taking time out and entertaining myself with television, movies and videos. I think of video art as a morale booster; something that others can use to take their minds off the things that worry them. As an artist, I want to continue to use art as a morale booster for myself and others. I want to tell stories that entertain, inform and please others. I will do what I love and love what I do for the rest of my life.

A Statement

As an artist I find my self most interested in analyzing the world and object around me. I use properties or qualities of things in my life to imagine things that are not a part of our world as of now and I formulate a plan to create them. I want my work to give the audience something they have never experienced before that may open there minds to new possibilities in there own lives that they may have overlooked. I hope that my art can take people back the there innocent days when everything your eyes rest on would be new and interesting.