[HAVE YOU EATEN?] Work In Progress

I am making a book about food and memories titled HAVE YOU EATEN?. It is the common greeting in Korea, and I am using it to bring up memories related food that I have eaten, to compose a sort of memoir. Images made so far can be seen here, though texts not included yet.

This is the most recent piece I am working on, about Bbopki (baked sugar, probably the cheapest and sweetest snack, obviously bad for your health but whatever, that I loved as a kid), and following piece is "how to make" page.

New Website:

Same address as before, 

New interior & new content. 

Speaking of Coffee Vending Machine..

I need to get my texts properly edited for my book project HAVE YOU EATEN? soon, so I was revising some texts I had already written. Somehow the most difficult subject to write about was the vending machine coffee, which was practically the starting point of this whole project. I just had too much to say and it wasn't organized and wasn't that interesting even to me. After a fruitless sitting down session in front of the computer screen for awhile, I just stood up to see what I wrote in 2008 when I made a preliminary painting for this project. (Of course I didn't know it was preliminary, then.)

I still remember I was painting this in 2008 after I became a junior in undergrad SVA. It was special because I did this for fun. I was always overwhelmed by loads of homework when I was in undergrad program, I never made anything for fun. I didn't have enough time for homework. But somehow, this piece made its way out. I was exploring with using gouache on black gessoed wood board, and with my favorite subject. Vending machine coffee had always been nostalgic to me and I just had fun making this. I remember my friend was pointing out bad anatomy and ugly cloths on people. It is a pretty bad painting. (Not that my paintings are any better now. *sob*) Still, somehow, this piece is one of a very few pieces that are out in my room. While pretty good pieces are in the drawer, this one is in fact on the shelf displayed.

When I revisited this piece and read what I wrote on the piece, I was a little surprised. So simple and yet it was actually much better and much closer to the essence of what I wanted to say than the writing piece I was struggling with. Maybe I felt about this subject much more vivid at that time. Still, am I going backwards or what?!

Coffee vending machine pieces after 5 years since the first piece:

A tiny cup of coffee that cost me 150 won (10 cents) ten years ago.

Coffee Break! Coffee was the bridge among people. 

Some of My Illustrations are Going to Bologna Children's Book Fair-!

My good old friend - we've been friends since we were nine!!- told me about this competition held by Literature Translation Institute of Korea, to be selected and promoted in Bologna Children's Book Fair. I did apply, without the slightest expectation, and did not even check on the result. That is kind of things you learn only after so many rejections and disappointments. I make myself forget about results. That way, I save (too much) disappointment and when there actually is a good result, it feels even better. It turned out to be not so good attitude this time though. Almost three weeks after the date of announcement, I suddenly remembered about this competition and went to their website, just to see. When I found my name on the list of selected illustrators, I was so happy and so freaked out at the same time. It was Sunday night, 17th, and the due date for them to receive hard copies of my promotional pieces via mail was Wednesday, 20th. And of course, it was to be mailed to their office in Korea.

I called Ms. Park, the person in charge, and begged to wait for my material. I made a package over night, sent them out express next morning to Korea. Ms. Park kindly sent me the confirmation when she received the package on Thursday.

Having my books in Bologna Children's Book Fair someday has been my dream. It's not my book that will be shown in the fair this year, but I am more than honored to be able to show a bit of my works there. Those pieces of mine would go to Bologna this time, and who knows, I also would go there myself sometime in the future with my own book! :)

I appreciate the chance from Literature Translation Institute of Korea and especially my friend Sohee who believed in my works!

Selected illustrators list to be promoted in Bologna Children's Book Fair by Literature Translation Institute of Korea.

Exhibitions Now On: Bookmaking to Opening

Book exhibition with works done by first year students of MFA Illustration program at SVA, curated by Viktor Koen is up since February 6th. The opening reception was on 14th, and the show would be there until March 3rd. They are all individual projects based on a short story called Mr.Nobody At All by Ann Beattie.  

Bookmaking before the show installation:

figuring out how to arrange pictures in a book

Making 49 images into one accordion book. Gluing, gluing, gluing. 

On February 6th, from early in the morning to the late afternoon, everyone gathered for installation:

Installation & Kim taking pictures of us.

Installation & Marshall trimming large size posters for Broadway Project Exhibition.

After the installation:  

24 images out of 49 images selected and hung: 49 days. 

Cheesy picture, but I had to do it.

With Marshall!!

While first year students were installing the Mr. Nobody At All show in the museum, in the lobby,  Chen-Min and Boyeon were installing Broadway Project Exhibition. The far right image with window scene is mine! 

February 14th, Opening Night:

It was a great turnout! 

People at the opening reception at the SVA museum.

There are a lot of people whom we owe a great deal to put this show together. There are many people whom I owe to finish up this book. There are many stories I wanted to say but didn't say. I was surprised and touched when people read the story that I thought I didn't tell. When I get my book back, after this show is over, I will try to tell more stories. Or maybe not.

HOPE Poster in the Finalists' Show in SVA Westside Project Space

HOPE poster submitted  to Student Health and Counseling Services

I pulled out my woodblock print to turn it into a poster. It was a HOPE poster competition sponsored by SVA Student Health and Counseling Services. We were given certain texts to be included in the poster and everything else was up to us. When I read the description and purpose of the campaign, I thought of this woodblock print I made awhile ago. The key in the campaign, I felt, was support and comfort and it did match well with the intention of this print when I was creating it.

Thankfully, this piece has been selected as a finalist in the competition and will be featured in the Hope Poster Exhibition in SVA Westside Project Space (133/141 West 21 Street) from Saturday, February 9, 2013 through Saturday, February 23, 2013. Works would be printed 18 x 24 poster size, so I am quite excited to see my work as big. The show is not up yet, but I got to see some works selected for the show and there are really some amazing works included! I am honored to be a part of it.

  

Finally at Katz's Deli!

location drawing @ Katz's Delicatessen

I have never felt any urge to go visit famous restaurants in NYC, but I did want to go to this Katz's Deli for quite awhile, maybe for about three years since I saw THE movie When Harry Met Sally. After all these years, I finally went. Friday morning, 11am, it was right before a crowd came for pastrami sandwiches.  The store was still quite crowded with merchants buying meat and people who came for late breakfast/ early lunch.

Selected for Illustration West 51, Society of Illustrators LA

Memoir, 2012, Etching with soft ground, aquatint, roll over and color pencils

It was more than two months ago when I submitted this work for Illustration West 51 competition at the Society of Illustrators, LA. So it came as a nice surprise when I received a notification email that my work was selected right on the Christmas Eve!

The work will be shown on their website (the link has not open yet. It would be available in early March.) along with other selected works for the competition. There also will be an exhibition at the Gallery Nucleus from March 8-12 in L.A. I am not so sure yet if I would ship my work out for the gallery show, but more info would come as it becomes clearer.

If you are curious about the story behind this piece, please read my previous post on this piece from last year.

Dad and me at an orchard

2013: Happy New Year

from sketchbook

There was a time I felt time had entirely stopped. Whatever I had felt, time diligently flew by and the new year has come. I love the fact the new year has begun. Everyone greets "Happy New Year!" with some amount of excitement in it and whenever I hear, I truly appreciate it. Then I reply, with all my heart, "Happy New Year."

@ AMNH, pt.2

Birds of the World.

Hilariously Cute..

Friday drawing class at American Museum of Natural History. It had been more than 4 years since I went there. Drew this hilariously cute manatee. I love manatees. Unbelievably cute, gentle creatures.

Moving On

Click the image!

On Hold

Always unexpected.

Peacefulness of way back home when it's still light out

Simplicity of her drawing, warmth and softness of her colors, quietly cheerful mood of her happy way back home were just so...perfect and I had to stare at it for a long time. Everything was so harmonious including the beautiful flow of Korea words.

For the first time, I put my jealousy behind towards a girl who is my age and who is already published and who is drawing and writing as a recognized level. 

Boy with a Violin, Cat as an Audience

Boy with a Violin, 2012, Etching with color pencils

This quite small 6" x 9" etching piece took quite a long while until it came along. I started it as a small, pleasant gift to a friend at the end of last year, 2011. It was meant to be quick, simple, funny and whimsical. I drew it out with a soft ground on the etching plate, which (usually) allows a very soft and pencil drawing feel to the print. It came out way too light, as if I erased the pencil drawings and it still left the trace on the paper. After I redrew, soft feeling I wanted was already gone.

I abandoned the plate for several months, then went back to it in the spring 2012. I put it through several layers of soft and hard ground drawings and aquatint. Then I colored it with color pencils.

So the supposedly light and simple drawing became a bit heavy. I wanted it to be Jean-Jacques Sempé like whimsical (and masterful!) drawing, but it became, well, my drawing. Though I did not like the piece for quite awhile, now I kind of like the cheerfulness of the boy's expression while he is being ready to play in front of his trying to be patient audience cat.

When I was planning this whole series (which I did not continue) of instrumental playing kids, I wanted them to be light and cheerful, mostly practicing not performing. As a little kid, when I was learning to play piano for the first time, it wasn't so much about fun. It was more about practicing and playing correct according to the note. It was, sadly, boring. Needless to say, one has to go through different phases to get better at something, but I still would love it to be something more fun and enjoyable. That's what I want the children in my drawing to have when they play musical instruments.


*more pics at the shop! Click here!

Ode to Maurice Sendak

From my sketchbook in 2008. Left: xerox from Maurice Sendak's Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. Right: My attempt to copy his drawing with addition of my own colors.

Maurice Sendak's delicate pen drawings were just so exquisite and moving in his picture book Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life, I had to held my breath.

In his writing for Jean Grenier's Islands, Albert Camus described a breathtaking joy to find a wonderful book in the store, read couple of pages then to run somewhere to read the entire book alone. A lot of Maurice Sendak's books were like that for me, and especially that Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life. (What kind of children's book has that kind of title?!) The encounter took place in 2008 winter, at the Visual Art Library where I was working and discharging the very book. From the moment I opened the first page, I was stunned. Not only beautifully composed drawings were so touching, but also the story of Jennie, a little white dog who was comfortably living in the house and had everything she wanted, was taking unpredictable turns every time I turned the page. I couldn't stop turning pages to follow curious and sly Jennie's adventure and her pleasant or depressing encounters. At the same time, I couldn't quite keep turning pages because drawings were just so beautiful and I had to keep looking at them in admiration.

I met Sendak's In the Night Kitchen when I first came to New York and went to Barns & Noble at the Union Square. At that time, (with much more enthusiasm and affection towards children's books than now I am), I often went to book stores and read children's books for hours. I can't quite forget the thrill I felt when I saw the book, In the Night Kitchen. I didn't even know about Sendak at that time. The book was just so different from any other books I'd ever seen and I couldn't put it down. That became the first children's book I purchased in New York. Later, I learned Maurice Sendak was a legend.

Though I did not enjoy his ever so famous Where the Wild Things Are as much as other books of his, I do remember the movie based on the book, which came out in 2009. I saw the movie with a guy I met through my first time (and last time) ever blind date in my life. The movie was quite good, but would have been hard to understand if one had not known the book.

I loved all his books for their beauty and for their characters. When I read an edited interview with Maurice Sendak in last week's New Yorker, I was not surprised. You could just see what he meant in his books. Yet I do hope he would be happier in another world. All my admiration is yours.

" It's hard to be happy. Some people have the gift of pulling themselves up and out and saying there is more to life than just tragedy. And then there are those who can't, and I'm one of them. Do you believe it when people say they're happy?"

- from THE NEW YORKER, MAY 21, 2012, WILD THINGS BY MARIANA COOK, from an interview with Maurice Sendak in 2009.

Memoir

© Aram Kim. detail of Memoir, 2012. 

 

Ancient Korean drawings truly fascinate me. I had been exploring since the new year with imitating the soft brush strokes of ancient Korean drawings using soft ground technique of etching. At the end, after printing several small plates copying Korean masters from 19th century, I wanted to draw something that contained my own story. So, this piece came, the last print I pulled before the printshop closed for one month break. 

I thought of what had been important part of my life and integrated several elements including ari (my own first pet ever, a yellow baby chicken I bought from the vendor in front of my old elementary school), books, etching press, family photos and many many more. 

I remembered an old photo I saw from the family album long time ago that a small girl, me, was reaching out for an apple in the tree at the orchard our family visited, probably for pick your own apples event. She (I) was so excited and happy in the photo and her face was full of joy. Simple expectation of picking an apple from a tree by herself brought the girl the greatest delight. 

Starting from the photo, I drew out the memorable elements of my life. Looking back, sometimes, does give you an energy to walk forward.     

Winter is back!!

Just like a term Indiansummer, for a temporarily hot period of time during early autumn, there is a term called 'flower-jealous-cold' in Korea to describe a short period of fierce cold right after people think it is spring. All the flowers are fully bloomed and people are enjoying light clothing and sunshine then boom! Winter is back!!

I changed my wardrobe last Wednesday night, packing every single winter clothing into my gigantic "immigration bag" in my closet. And yesterday, my teeth were all clattering. It's time to dig out some winter clothes again. Oh, well.

Hands

Second and third drawing of Four drawing series of hands, which is included in the project Love... to be shown this Thursday at the Korean Cultural Service, NY, with the music by New York Classical Symphony (see the previous posting for more info on the event!).
Done by soft ground etching and aquatint, colored with color pencils and collage. I made the series specifically for this project, but the idea is growing and this hand series would be the next project I'm going to work on after I finish this show. Sakura from SVA printshop gave me such an inspiring idea on a new project, I can't wait to get it started. That is the most wonderful thing about this SVA printshop. Everyone shares ideas and inspires each other. What an awesome place! :)

Art with Music, 2nd Round, on October 27th, 7:30pm

Collaboration Project Love... will be presented for the second time on October 27th, Thursday, 7:30pm at the Korean Cultural Service New York. It's located on 57th street, Park Avenue, 6th floor.
I am reworking on some pieces I used last time at 1 & 9 Gallery in New Jersey when we had the first showing. Deadline has been really tight for both times, but I was a little surprised to realize how much I enjoy the tight deadline...It would be only because I'm enjoying the project so much.
This will be mainly a concert by young and talented musicians from New York Classical Symphony. They are playing several pieces, including Piazzolla and Hendel, which I would update the program soon. The project Love... will be presented at the beginning of second half, with live music and video file of original drawings. I am working hard to include a new etching piece in the series.
Come enjoy the show! :)

*Here is the press release at the Korea Times on this event, if you read Korean. ;)