How is it that simple images residing in our minds can become powerful symbols of people, cultures, and even mirror images of ourselves?
Recently, we have had the pleasure of becoming friends with artist Kwan Young Lee. Kwan, a South Korea native, is now living and painting here in the states. Years ago we stumbled upon his work and were dumbfounded. From one artist to another I was inspired, from a collector's standpoint we were committed to owning his works.
When Kwan Young and I finally did meet and interact, we were instantly friends. With tears welling in his eyes he said we were kindred spirits and very similar painters. We did indeed purchase a quite significant piece from him, and over a kettle of fresh green tea we began discussing our conceptual process.
It was so interesting that we both felt as though dreaming directly fed our creative images. He said to start a new work, he must sleep quite a bit. I too have created whole series and narratives off of the dreams I remember when waking... for instance my series "a ressurrection of time indefinite" was all birthed through a dream.
So my question is how wonderful is it that our minds have the ability to percieve images that the public needs? That we have the drive to create works of art that challenge cultural views and or agree with them...
I often speak of my images as "hauntingly hopeful". They are images that linger and provoke... they don't just go away but achieve a purpose for which they were sent.
An artist's perception is a beautifully prophetic thing-- we are constantly sending messages that match or link to someone else's perspective.
In Kwan Young's painting titled "Encounter", it is a very loose image, etherial, and quiet...however we were enthralled with it's meaning before we even confirmed it was correct in our heads.
Two cups of green tea later... Kwan Young described to us the purpose and meaning of the "Encounter" painting. We were correct...everything we felt in the ghostly image was what it was created to illustrate. How powerful is that? What a gifting...
So as I review this "best of" show I think back to the under layers of my imagery and to the things no one sees... tight budgets, sleeping on tables at the end of the night in a freezing cold studio...power outages in the dead of summer, bloody hands and week knees...the victorious feeling of a successful narrative, the crippling feeling of loss, the memory as a child of old carseat's in the summer, the sound of my mother's voice... a fall drum beat from a football field and my fathers narrating passion, laughing until I have cried, thoughts of the poor and how I can change that... the sweet sound of my dogs feet on hardwoods in the morning... the feeing of thinking i cannot go on and having the sense of complete redemption...
in all of this, under every image there are blankets of thoughts and layers of emotion-
all culminating to the observer in a single moment in a single painting.
For these images I am constantly enthralled at the idea of being "hauntingly hopeful". I am so moved and so thankful for a brain that thinks in conjuction with my spirit...
Hope to see you all at the opening Feb. 18th at Pryor Fine Art, a show based on a retrospective production of my past four years of works in Atlanta, Georgia.
