a-1, Stumbled upon on the internet 우연한 만남

Jeff Kabat (American)제프카벳 : 2005, October

2009, January => Jeff Kabat, he is an American and his wife is a Korean.
Now, they live on Jeju Island in South Korea. Below are the emails from him since last June.
Fortunately, I could deliver the two paintings to him. I still remember his lovely family and beautiful house.

제프카벳은 미국인이고 그의 아내는 한국인이다. 그들은 현재 제주도에서 영어학원을 직접 운영하고 있다. 2000년대초 울산에서 만난 미국인 친구 다니엘이 제주도로 직장을 옮기면서 제프카벳과 가까운 친구가 됐다.   아래 메일은 다니엘을 통해서 내 홈페이지의 작품들을 접한 후 내 그림을 소장하게 된 이야기가 담겨있다.

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111, introduction, a few questions - 2005/06/19 -

Hello. I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jeff Kabat, and I live in Jeju with my wife 윤혜, son Dante (9 years old) and daughter Halla (8 years old). We've been on the island since 1996.

My wife and I are both English teachers, and a few years ago opened our own 영어 학원 which we continue to operate.

A number of weeks ago I stumbled upon Daniel Julian's website. I've known Daniel for about a year now and see him once or twice a month. On his website I read his description of your work. I found the pictures remarkable.

I followed his link to your homepage and there found your description of Daniel and Jessie's surprise X-mas presents. Great story.

My wife and I have been looking for a painting to hang above our sofa for, well, maybe for 2 years now. We've almost found something a couple of times, but either it had just been sold or we weren't completely sure we wanted it.

Last week I showed my wife your site and she loved one of the paintings in particular, and thought all of the work was excellent.

We'd like to ask about buying one of your paintings. The one she really wants, well, I'm afraid it's hanging in the home of 박미령. So I imagine it is not for sale.

This is the one: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So, time for my questions. Is there any way we can see some of the works that are available for sale? Are some of the works shown on your webpage "about me - 1" for sale?

If one were to ask for a painting similar in style to the one above, would you be able to paint it?
If so, and we wanted a pretty big size, maybe like about 120cm x 75cm, how much might that cost? Is that something you would have time to do this year?

I really don't know anything about this sort of thing.

We love what we've seen of your work. We would like to try and buy one to hang in our home. If you have a chance, please let me know how we can see what might be available.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope to hear back from you when you get a chance.

Sincerely,
Jeff Kabat
Jeju Island
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222, thank you for the response
ChangHan,
Thank you so much for answering my e-mail. I will share it with my wife and we will talk about the things you wrote.

While we would love to just pack up and go to Ulsan this weekend to see your gallery, it just isn't possible. With two young children involved in many things and a business that is getting into the busy season, we can't manage the weekend away on short notice.

We don't yet have a 학원 website. It is on our list of things to do, but other things seem to keep getting put in front of it.
We will have a more detailed look at the paintings on your website, talk about the ones we most like and get back to you on that.

I have heard of Ulsan, but haven't been there except maybe passing through to other places.
I am very satisfied living in Jeju. I think it has all the wonderful things about Korea without the
things that make it a harder place to live. The air is clean, it's usually pretty quiet, there are very few traffic jams, the beach is very near and so is the mountain. It is also a great place to raise children.

I'm from the U.S., grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Also a nice place to live.

You asked about the size I mentioned. The size that I mentioned we are interested in, I think I said 120x75, would be total size. Including any framing or matting.
Again, thank you very much for responding to my email.

You said you were sorry for the rough English. Know that there is no need to apologize. Your English is very good and easy to understand. I can also easily feel your emotion in your writing. I'm happy that we can communicate clearly. So instead of you saying
sorry, let me say "thank you" for your English ability.

Good luck with the rest of your exhibition in Ulsan.
My wife and I will spend some time looking and thinking and I will email you again soon. Probably with questions about some of the paintings on your website.

Thanks again,
Jeff Kabat
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333, 2005/07/13 ChangHan,
Nice to hear from you.
Yes, rainy season is here, but so far Jeju hasn't had very much rain. Seems like last year we had a pretty dry rainy season too.

This is the busiest time of year for us at our hagwon. As you know, summer vacation begins for the 초등하생 very soon. At that time, many mothers want their children to study
English more. So we are busy making the new schedule for summer vacation.

This is one reason I haven't replied to you about what we hope to do about one of your paintings. We haven't really sat down and talked about it lately.
We will do so soon, I hope, and I'll let you know.
If you would send the brochure, that would be wonderful.

Jeff Kabat
Hope your travel to Australia is safe.
Jeff
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444, How is Australia??
It has been a long time since I wrote. I hope your time in Australia has been excellent.

I spent about 12 months there back in 1992/1993 and had a great experience.
Thank you very much for sending the programs from your various exhibitions. Your work is truly outstanding
After sitting down, my wife and I, and even with some input from the children, the response was interesting.

Of all the works we were able to see, the one that we were most drawn to is the one I mentioned in my first e-mail. The one in the woman's house.
This one: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~··


You explained that it was in her home and might be emotionally difficult to sell it from there. We understand that completely and don't want to cause anyone any kind of emotional distress.
However, if you are able to, and only if you are (I really don't want to ask you to do something you don't want to do...), we would happily buy that painting for the $$$ you mentioned.

If it is not comfortable asking the woman who has the painting to give it up, I understand. Totally.

You have no obligation to us. Your relationship with the woman who has the painting is important, and our relationship is secondary to that. We will not feel bad at all if you tell us that the painting is not available. If that is the case, maybe we can talk about you painting something for us that is similar. I look forward to hearing from you,

Jeff Kabat
Jeff's Academy
Jeju Island
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555, Re: for the painting in Ulsan -1
ChangHan,
Thanks for the great e-mail. You sound pretty busy.

Good opportunity for your wife and children to stay in Australia for a while, but I'm sure it can be very lonely for you. I guess if you stay busy it is easier.
Your children will benefit greatly from the time there in their English education, I'm sure.

Thank you for sending the paintings to look at. You wrote: "I understand your style but before decide your final choose, I would recommend to you three similar paintings more." You are right, you do understand our style. We really like all of them and would love to say we'll take them all, but that isn't something we can do right now.

After considering them all very seriously, our feeling is still that the one in the woman's house is the one we want.

However, if you would prefer to put that in the exhibition, we can wait. Or, if for some reason it has to stay with the woman, we can choose one of the other ones and be very satisfied with that.

Let me know. If the choice is ours, we would happily, eagerly and excitedly buy the one in the woman's house for $$$ won.

Question: Does the painting have a name? Or is its name "the one in the woman's house"?

So, if we can buy it, great. Late this month or early next month is fine. No great hurry. If we can't, that's fine too. We'll think about which of the others we will choose.
Thanks so much for the long email. And thanks for the offer to stay in your home in Ulsan. If we ever find ourselves going there with free time, we will let you know.

I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Jeff
PS: I'm attaching a few photos of my family, so you know a little more about us.
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666, Re: reply & attached samples -1
ChangHan,
Thank you for the long letter and suggestions.
We are happy to be able to buy the painting. And we are satisfied with the acrylic frame style you sent examples of.

Thank you for considering other paintings that we might want, and for offering special prices to us. Having looked at them, there is one I want. The sample d-1, watercolor with wood frame, $$$ won. I would very much like to buy that, but secretly.

I will give it to my wife as a present. So, when you give us your bank account number for us to send the $$$ won for the original painting, I will have my wife transfer that from our account. I will then transfer $$$ myself, without telling her, for the watercolor. It will be okay if you ship them together. Also ok if you don't.

Also, thank you for the offer to give us a small watercolor for thanking us.
With you family in Australia maybe Chuseok will be strange. I hope you have a great holiday.

Please let me know when you want us to send the money, and to what account.
Again, thank you so much for everything,

Jeff
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777, ChangHan, - 2005-09-15 -
Hi, I just got back from the bank where I 'secretly' sent you $$$ won. My wife will send the $$$ for the original piece tonight or tomorrow.

Regarding your plan to possibly bring the painting to Jeju... I would love to meet you and spend some time with you. And it would be no problem to meet you at the harbor.

But, I don't want to put you to any trouble. If sending the acrylic frame by mail is not safe, maybe you can recommend another style of frame that would look good and could be sent safely.

I truly do not want to give you any difficulty about time or travel.
Thanks for your phone number. My cell phone number is ???.

My wife visited her hometown last weekend, so we are kind of free for Chuseok. We have a family plan to climb Halla san.

Hope you have a good time in Yeongju.
Jeff