All throughout our trip we have been collaborating with the artist Miro Kim who is a friend of Heidi’s. She has been extremely helpful in introducing us to working printmakers, showing us around, and providing us with an adorable little girl to fuss over. Seriously, she’s adorable.
Anyways, the point is that Miro Kim Sunsaengnim has been a HUGE help to us during our stay here in Korea, and an overall joy to meet! We spent all of yesterday with this fantastic artist looking at some of her work and then going shopping!
Honestly, I hadn’t really looked into Miro Kim Sunsaengnim’s work before this visit, and was really pleased to find that her work is AMAZING! I loved every piece that she showed us! She does mostly prints, with a few drawings and paintings thrown in there in a very print like process. (I will explain momentarily). Almost all of her pieces are of animals, in soft muted colors overlapping in different directions. I came to understand that most of her prints were etching or lithograph, and they were absolutely marvelous! She said that she spends a lot of time at the zoo and I can believe it! These animals were beautifully rendered, and her pieces came together so well, oh man, art crush right now!
So, her process was what really struck me as interesting. She said many times that she loves the indirect nature of printmaking, that you aren’t just slapping the paint right on the canvas. I can totally agree with that! Once you get down to putting your pencil or your paintbrush on that really nice paper and making a “final work” it’s super intimidating and that can throw you off. Miro Sunsaengnim prefers to print/draw/paint on a thin almost transparent paper and then glue her prints in layers onto the canvas or final paper. She can achieve the very layered look that she wants without having to work directly on the surface. It is handy, and made for stunning work. Her layering was wonderfully done, and I especially liked her pieces where she attempted to layer different animals to create a “new pattern”. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of these pieces and I can’t find her webpage again!! agh!! Here are some of her prints though!
She also has pieces where she starts with a smaller image and then expands it by adding little collaged pieces. She had a really cool peacock one that was sold so she showed us a picture, and a wonderful porcupine that we got to see up close 🙂
Her subject matter had a lot to do with this idea of being withdrawn, or hiding, which she said related to the idea of the indirect nature of printmaking. She also liked to deal with directions and often portrays animals from multiple viewpoints to get an idea of their potential to go that direction.
Another thing that struck us all was her fluidity with mediums. It actually seems as if all of the artists here flow between mediums, which is odd because the school system is set up to prevent just that. Overall I really enjoyed Miro Sunsaengnim’s work and totally have to find that website again!
After visiting with Miro Kim Sunsaengnim in her studio she also took us to one of her favorite shopping places! I totally wasn’t going to buy anything (I’ve spent so much money) buuuuuut I did find a gift of two and a few awesome shirts for myself 😉
Hello Korea! 