'잠자리의 사계' 그림

Dragonfly Seasons  Paintings

  1990년대 부터 그린 자연의 단편적인 이미지 중 잠자리는 지금까지도 즐겨 그리는 소재(주제)이다. 나는 잠자리를 통해서 살아 숨쉬는 현대문명의 정제(精製)된 힘과 자연그대로의 생생한 삶과의 상징적 결합에 대해 관심을 갖고 있다.

  잠자리의 구속되지 않은 자유로운 비행은 동심의 미묘한 변화 뿐만 아니라 인간의 정신과 육체의 자유로움을 메아리친다. 즉 나의 잠자리는 자연으로의 복귀와 자연적 삶에 대한 욕구를 불러일으킨다. 그곳에서 잠자리 연작은 계속된다.

이것은 제한된 인간의 끝없는 상상력 및 영혼과 정신적 공간의 신비스러움을 나타낸다.

  잠자리의 포효(咆哮)하는 듯한 날개 짓은 현대문명의 거대한 힘에 의한 역동성과 대자연의 힘찬 생동감을 담고자 하는 삶의 건강함과 순수함을 나타내고자 했다.

푸른 창공을 마음껏 날아가는 잠자리는 인간의 육체적 정신적 해방을 나타내기도 하며 동심의 세계이기도 하다. 즉, 자연그대로의 모습처럼 살다가 자연 속으로 돌아가고자 하는 염원을 담은 것이다. 무수한v잠자리의 비행은 끊임없는 무아(無我)의 경지에 대한 갈구를 나타낸다. 여백의 공간은 무한한 상상의 공간이며, 우주의 신비로움이기도 하다. 

  My dragonflies have found expression in all seasons and many settings. The dragonfly in flight is a natural image which I have been working with since 1990s.

I am interested in the dragonfly as a symbol combining the refined power and activity of modern civilization with the raw, vivid life of nature.

  The unfettered flight of the dragonfly echoes human mental and physical freedom as well as the whimsical world of the child. In short, my dragonflies evoke a return to nature and an expression of the desire for living naturally.

Space, my dragonfly series, is boundless.

This represents unlimited human imagination and the mysteries of mental and spiritual space.

  The dragonfly, which flies freely in blue sky, signifies human mental and physical freedom as well as the whimsical world of a child.

  In short, my dragonflies invoke a return to nature and express the desire for living naturally. The space of this painting is boundless, and represents the human imagination and the mysteries of physical and mental space.

On a moonlit night, a dragonfly

  The moon is full of meaning in both Western and Eastern cultures.It is interesting to observe how the word 'moon' is used in various Western expressions. In many English expressions, the moon seems to represent what one wants but cannot have: to promise the moon - to offer something desirable but unattainable; to moon over - to dream of or long for

Some similar expressions are beyond the moon, to shoot the moon, and to bark at the moon. These and other 'moon' expressions seem related to madness and wild excess, as in moonstruck (crazy), over the moon (ecstatic), moony (stupid), and even moonshine (which means both foolish talk and strong alcohol).

These Western connotations seem somewhat frightening and negative compared to how we think of the moon in the East.  Korea in particular has many positive and beautiful customs associated with the moon. JeongWeol is the first month of the Lunar Year. It begins on January 15th of the solar calendar. The Lunar New Year offers the brightest and biggest view of the moon.On this holiday, we pray for good fortune -- a custom dating back to ancient times. This custom and positive understanding of the moon echoes throughout Korean traditional folk culture -- in music, dance, theatre, storytelling and the visual arts.

With the close of each passing year and the opening of the next, the moonlight of my hometown, Uljugoon Chungryangmyun, seems more pure and clear than ever before.  My town is not far from the city lights of Ulsan, but fortunately we can enjoy true darkness and deep stillness of night because we are closely surrounded by the wooded slopes of a small mountain range.At nightfall here in the heart of winter, we can depend upon the inspiring sight of the moon running along the ridge of a nearby mountain.

Following the moon with my eye, I often experience beauty and peace, reminding me of a well-loved Korean legend. It is said that there is a great old laurel tree on the moon and that lovely hares frolic there.It is under this lucid, legendary moon that I try to draw my beautiful tail all the night through: being a dragonfly and flying in the dark sky as the hares play beneath the great old laurel tree.                                                      December, 2004

 Legends and Life Renewed

 Ume (Maehwa) flowers in the snow

On the doorstep of spring, 2005, I am captivated by an ume flower opening on an old tree at Tong-do Buddhist Monastery. It reminds me of a story I heard in elementary school about a girl whose mother, as she lay dying in mid-winter, longed to see the ume flower once more.        

In a feverish dream, the girl met the god of a mountain, who showed her an Ume blooming on a snow-covered peak. The girl brought the flower from her dream and showed it to her mother. Miraculously, the mother's health improved, and she lived on happily for many more seasons.I will never forget my great joy when I first saw the ume blooming in the snow. Unfortunately, the snow soon melted away. I strove to capture the vibrancy of the ume flowers in powerful strokes and tones as bright and cheerful as watercolors.

Winter dragonflies & the flowering ume (Maehwa)

Last winter, I resolved to arrange a series of winter dragonflies and ume flowers together on canvas. I first used the acrylics to paint the winter dragonflies with the background of a cloudless night, then rendered the ume flowers generously in oils. I feel that this endeavor was quite successful, achieving a delicate balance between rich, heavy strokes of color and the light, airy beauty of space. Such celebration of open space is a long-honored tradition in Korean painting.Ume flowers at Tongdo-Sa, which became a focus of my painting four years ago, have produced different impressions every season. I feel that the Ume flowers offered here convey not only the simple beauty of nature, but also a sense of mercy reminiscent of the spiritual teachings of Buddha. Observing the flower buds bursting out in scarlet even as I painted them on the canvas in oils, I experienced a great fulfillment and completeness of life.