Inside my studio
This page is intended to share insights into my creative process. I refer to my creative space as "Inside my studio," which encompasses more than just the physical confines of a traditional studio. It includes my garden, daily walks, travel experiences, and even mundane tasks like cutting fruits. Essentially, wherever I am aware of my surroundings and my own observation, I consider myself to be "at work" inside my studio. Furthermore, I believe that intelligence is a result of accumulated perception, gained through a heightened sensitivity to the world around us.
1.5 months of Coronavirus lockdown. Spring heatwave in Los Angeles. As always, my eyes find the images and conditions that resemble my inner condition.
Seeing is the process and shapes the outcome in the studio.
Color is never absolute. With the physical light added, the color increases its saturation. The color is experienced as ever-present now at the time of viewing.
I love playing with light; the interplay between the light and various materials and their behavior; how light changes the appearance of color, form, and even the mood; how light changes in direction, intensity, and color.
The dying flower reveals its life-supporting veins. As it loses water and gets drier, the flower makes a more aggressive gesture. When light penetrates its petals, they look even more beautiful as the stained glass at the cathedral.
Visual music.
I am drawn to the elements, materials, and environment that reveal the light in a poetic way.
Accumulated daily "seeing" and my visual response. Beyond color, form, shape, value, etc, "s seeing" includes 1. textures such as wet, dry, oily, smooth, rough, sticky, temperature, and 2. movements such as growing trees, blossoming flowers, passing light, drying moisture, etc
Playing with the light on and around this delicate structure.
Before leaving for my artist residency in Assisi, Italy, I read about their "pink" limestone. I found them everywhere during my walk. I put them on a fig leaf to bring out redness against the green, its complementary color. I used these pink colors for the background of one of two drawings created during this residency. This piece was made as a flower offering to Santa Chiara(Saint Clara) in Assisi. The overall color scheme reflects the ceiling fresco painting at Basilica Santa Chiara.
Warm colored Assisi "pink limestones" placed against green to increase its redness/temperature.
Lights and shadows inside my studio. I spend much time just watching them; how they move, how their color change and their intensity
I enjoy working with the southern light which brings out the saturation of color that I look for. Unlike many artists who enjoy the northern light for its steady quality, I work with the color in flux as I see color is never absolute.
IIn January 2014, I started the project that was named “GREEN" at the beginning. Multiple panels have been executed based on the study of colors of California succulents and cactus. Each panel was devoted to the colors of one succulent. The colors of each succulent were decomposed and recomposed with the mixture of gouache, Korean transparent-colored-silk "nobang", and physical light
Notes on the studio wall
Colors/light are the main elements daily that aligns my consciousness with ever-present now. "Being a good listener without judging" is how I often describe this experience.
A short color(red+white+more) journey today with my camera. All triggered from the colors and taste of my blackberry, blueberry, banana yogurt I made for lunch/snack today.
Examples of hues of green collected from my garden and used for teaching in class about color theory.
Monochrome. Value. Split Complementary color harmony.
Being aware. Studio practice and learning happens everywhere and all times.
I call it "color grammar." One of color study projects from Graduate School.
"Composition based on complimentary or split-complementary with their chromatic neutrals organized with either temperature or value."
After days of walking by these eucalyptus barks, I picked them up and brought them into my studio. I studied, enjoyed observing their colors, textures, and their turning twisting gestures. Then, I developed a drawing project for my class as shown in the photo on right.
Some objects collected and images of my interest inside my studio
Domestic landscape. Some of the elements of my art medium and techniques- staining, needlework, fabric, photography, physical light for color, and structure.
The garden is an important part of the studio where much of observation and learning happens. Gardening is about composing the open space with living beings, the circle of life is witnessed, and the physical light is observed.
Like listening to music, my eyes listen to the light in the space where I am.
Inside my studio in autumn 2023. Autumn is the time to "fall or letting go" in nature after reaching its fullest such as fruits and leaves. It allows more space in my mind and slows down my body.
Inside my studio in autumn 2023. The color, texture, and taste of this time of the year. It has become one of the ways I can re-connected with my mother who passed. We used the branches with persimmons to decorate the house celebrating the arrival of autumn.
After studying the colors of the Monet's painting, I noticed the table was filled with the objects that echoed the colors in Monet's painting.