Dollar Tree

5/19/2021

What is an art

Yesterday I took my daughter to the Dollar Tree store for a while. Dollar Tree, formerly known as Only $1.00, is an American chain of discount variety stores that sells items for $1 or less. In Europe, One euro shop seems to play the same role. Dollar Tree is a store that my daughter loves because she can put her favorite toys in a shopping cart without some restrictions from her mother.

Someday, I've seen a friendly grandmother and grandson in a store before. First, the grandson asked his grandmother, "Can I put everything into the cart when I want?" Then she answered, " By all means! my sweety". After that, the little boy smiled with a lovely expression as if he had the power of the world. So the scenery in my memories remains until now, like a scene from a movie about humanism.

Whenever children visit the dentist in Germany, the dentist shows them a giant size toy box after treatment. Inside a square-shaped toy box with wheels, there are many various toys for around a dollar. And the doctor speaks to the children in a kind voice. "Pick just one toy you want to have. I'll give it to you as a gift toy". Choosing a toy in the box makes it a joyful journey to go to the dentist, to children that always afraid of dental treatment.

It's a pity that I don't have the opportunity to experience that kind of thing anymore in the United States. I have seen an interview that a foreigner living in Korea is returning to his country, Norway. The biggest reason is that there are few candy stores in Korea where he can choose and eat as much as he likes in his country as a child. And he said that one day, it suddenly came to him like homesickness and made up his mind to homecoming.

Freedom and afford to buy whatever you want to choose from everything. When a child grows up and becomes an adult, at some point, he realizes that this is something no one can do. And, like nostalgia, you miss the days when you could do what you wanted in our parents' love. And sometimes, you can recall the painful memories of not buying the toys from your mother. But, perhaps after becoming an adult, you may find out why she had to do that, and you may be in a situation where you can't argue anymore.

Art is like a toy box where anyone can take out what they want. Because of the freedom of expression, when we pursue art, we feel like going back to childhood in a time machine.

Through the eyes of children, 2013, Myungja Anna Koh

Moreover, representing the freedom to express what we want to do has helped humans pursue and assert their rights as human beings anytime, anywhere.

"For the first time since escaping to Lebanon, I feel that someone sees us as human beings, who not only require food and shelter, but also have cultural needs."Martina Sabra quotes a Syrian refugee saying this sentence.

The arts are an ideal tool to express freely that a person can think of themselves. Besides, it can help the public to express their opinions, philosophies, thoughts, and emotions. Therefore, humans have constantly created pictures, paintings, songs, dancings, writings, and other performances. If humans do not enjoy this freedom, they are individuals with an adult children who cannot grow up in your heart even when they become an adult. But paradoxically, it is also the power of the art that makes these inner child grow.

Reference : The Arts, A human right, by Sabine Balk.
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/why-arts-need-and-deserve-freedom

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Immigrant Artist

5/19/2021

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Movie Minari review

Film, Minari by pancinema

The film "Minari" is a classic immigrant story with specific details that many people can relate to their life. The story begins when the Korean American father, Jacob(Steven Yeun) of an immigrant family, heads to Asokan, a rural town in the United States, to fulfill his American dream. They came from Korea in the 1980s to live a better life, and As a means of living, they work as a chick gender inspector in a California factory. However, Jacob is disillusioned with his monotonous job and wants to show his daughter, Anne, and six-year-old boy, David, the ideal image of the head of a householder who realized his dream as a farmer. But his wife, Monica(Jeri Han), disagrees with his future goals and wants to return to California for a stable life and treat David's heart disease. The only tension that leads to a calming movie like this classical music is the conflict between Jacob and Monica. Had they not been close-ups and vividly alive descriptions of their strains, this story would have been nothing more than an American dream scenario or a diary for immigrants.
One day, they saw the news that a tornado was approaching their 50-acre farmhouse, and Monica's expression was the same as the attitude of the immigrants to the risk they faced in unfamiliar land for the first time. Because the description that evokes empathy is like the autobiography of director Jeong Isaac, an American Korean raised in an immigrant family.
Director Jung made the story's climax by not forcing him to put a dramatic element into the screenplay but by introducing Grandma's character in the play. Grandmother, Soonja(Yuh-Jung Yun) came from Korea to take care of her grandchildren instead of Monica. Soonja, a typical Korean grandmother, brings water parsley seeds from Korea and plants them along a nearby stream with her grandchildren. Minari is a familiar Korean herb name and can cook in various foods. It symbolizes the Koreans' ability to adapt quickly and the fortitude to rise again after overcoming difficulties. In the middle, the film shows a little joy that sparkles like our lives in constant tension. Grandmothers from Korea are holding hands and walking along the stream, children laughing on wooden swings made by their mother, and husband fulfilling their dreams with neighbors. All of these spectacles are probably thought of by most immigrants at least once.
But conflicts always arise when people who have lived in different backgrounds gather together for a long time. The grandchildren bother the grandmother, who doesn't fit with them, and the son-in-law complains at the mother-in-law, who secretly makes the wife's side. To add insult to injury, Jacob was scammed by the same Korean and lost all the money he had saved for his dreams. This movie tells about life itself. It is like our lives that we must endure and endure numerous hardships and difficulties for a sparkly short time. After many twists and turns, they eventually adapt to the peaceful Asokan, assimilate with their neighbors, and live a life like a movie. This film calmly portrays immigrant families becoming one with nature and the people around them.
This film was not an intense stimulus like a poster for incitement or a success story that was not common, but it was a meaningful attempt to remind us that our life itself is a film.

From an unfamiliar land in Germany to another strange land in the United States, I look back at the lives of immigrants where every day is a challenge and every hour is tense. At any moment, I realize myself calling me that I am an immigrant artist. When I attend the group exhibition in Mills Pond Gallery last year, I wrote my artist statement like that:

Last April, I have finally got an opportunity to attend ArtExpo New York.
But the pandemic broke my plan and the event postponed next year.
Moreover, I still have been struggling with a hard time since I moved to New York from Germany.
As an immigrant artist, everything is a big challenge for me.
In spite of the difficulty, art gives me energy for survival and mission for the future.
I believe that war and chaos have plagued for a long time, but even the plague passed us for an artistic life.

I hope to become a immigrant painter who draws such a Minari-like work that can grow well anywhere and be a portion of good energy for anyone.

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First impression

5/18/2021

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First impression of New York

One of my routines is to bring my child to the playground as soon as school is over. Thankfully, it brings me little jewel-like joy when I asked and had small talk with parents who watch their children playing.

In Korea, someone asks something to others without reason, and they are treated as strange people. That's why Korean usually reluctant to talk to street persons who they don't know before. To do that, they have some purpose of selling things or mission work to say "Trust in Jesus."

But, in America, small talk is familiar scenery anywhere, that I think it's an excellent way to expand our range of interests, activities, and knowledge.
Every so often, I meet a person who has the same situation as an immigrant. And then I am pleased to ask what is the impression of America. To that question, many people give different answers depending on their own unique experiences, backgrounds, opinions, and cultures.

In my case, I moved to Germany in 2016. My husband needed to get more challenges to achieve his studies. At that time, I was working as a researcher in the medical informatics field. Almost I exhausted with overloading as multiplayer.

The first view I saw from the window of an airplane getting off at Frankfurt Airport in Germany was a variety of green, rectangular-shaped lawns. It was winter, and it was amazing to see the green scene. Of course, Korean grass turns yellow in winter. But, as I later found out, the German turf was green all year round. And I could see people walking and often stopping to see trees or flowers. Unfortunately, when I was in Korea, I couldn't afford to stop seeing flowers. The green feeling and the appearance of people who enjoy nature remain sincerely as images of Germany.

After living in Germany for 8 years, I moved to the United States. When I arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport, I was rather impressed by the paintings inside the airport. It consists of 28 panels, 8 x 350 ft, installed above the waiting line for screening for entry into New York. It was made by an artist, Debora Masters, and she expressed relief through her artworks, like a folding screen with a series of pictures. The pictures describe our ordinary living such as dinner, vacation, sport, and family time. In addition, the friendly paintings where the various races gather and enjoy daily life helped to relieve vague anxiety about unfamiliar places.

My image of America goes back to my childhood and connected to the movie " Back to the future," an American science fiction. The impressive part of the movie was Marty's (Michael J. Fox) house, where the home passed the front yard with the post box, opened the fence, and entered the backyard. There are not many detached houses with yards in Korea, and also, it is a rare sight to see the places with front yards and backyards, so such a scene was interesting.
Now I live in suburban New York, and I feel some liberty and impression whenever I look around the street's post boxes. The post boxes are different, like colors, shapes, and designs, and it has only kept their rules about the height by post offices' regulations. When I was in Korea, I was well educated that I should always be in the same style as my group. That's why I felt freedom when I saw various colorful mailboxes on the streets. This diversity in life gives me joyful freedom and broadens my view of the world. I wonder if this is the role art is pursuing.

Walking New York, by Debora Masters, John F. Kennedy airport

The Diversity is a artistic expression by Jaime Chou and Noah Van Blarcom. Diversity can be defined as the quality or state of having many different forms, types or ideas. Diversity is the idea of everyone and everything coming in different shapes, forms, colors and sizes.

If there is a wish for me, just as I felt freedom and hope when I saw the mailbox for the first time, I would like my work to convey that diversity to someone.

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Sonnets no. 29 by William Shakespeare

5/17/2021

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An art in a Poetry

Sonnet, Acrylic, 10x 10, 2011 Myungja Anna Koh

"When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. "

- Sonnets no. 29 by William Shakespeare

Until I purely find my world and identity in the painting, it was such a person who constantly compares me with other people and laments.
With this depressed and desperate mind, I should always seek what the point of lack by myself is. However, since I couldn't find my true self, I had no choice but to rely on the recognition and praise around me without knowing the true joy of life. After writing so far and looking back to my sentences, it is like a testimony of Christianity. In my experience, it was like the process of becoming a Christian.

Anyway, I did love the poem of sonnets no. 29 of Shakespeare, and it gives me comfort and cheer. But I can't understand What Shakespeare was trying to say until I bring that sentence into my life.

Above all, there are countless gas lightings around us. Gaslighting is what hinders you from seeing the essence of an object. It keeps you from finding the lark at the door of heaven and keeps you trapped in constant despair and dissatisfaction.

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that occurs in abusive relationships. The term gaslighting comes from the 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton, known in America as " Angel Street" and later developed into the film " Gas Light" by Alfred Hitchcock. In the suspense film, a manipulative husband tries to make his wife think she is losing her mind by making subtle changes in her environment, including slowly and steadily dimming the flame on a gas lamp. Not only does he disrupt her background and make her believe she is insane, but he also abuses and controls her, cutting her off from family and friends. As a result, she loses her identity as he intended and eventually goes crazy.

In order to live a free life from gaslighting, the emotional process of losing oneself and becoming someone other than oneself is an excellent way to building self-reliance and confidence in defining their reality.

When I find myself through art and find myself, for the first time, I can understand the sentence " Like to the lark at break of day arising". Even though my reality is shabby and lacking, I don't want to change with anyone.

Art found reality in the gaslighting surrounding me, made me feel complete, and eventually helped me escape it.
The gaslighters said to me, incessantly trying to see something happen.
"Everything is your fault, and you are useless. If you don't listen to me, you can't survive."
But I believed these strange words until I visited a hospital to care my Thyroid disease. The hospital is in Germany, the doctor's name is Joseph Gatti. His clinic looked like an art gallery, with many pictures hanging on every wall, and there were some art books and art catalogs on the table. So, by chance, I picked up an art masterpiece of paintings by an artist and started looking at them during the waiting time. The book says that Nobody is perfect. It is a simple and common word, but it strongly impacted the related paintings. I realized the reality that each other's incomplete entities hurt each other, and I understood my incompleteness and put it down.

What should we do first to protect ourselves from the many gaslighters such as wrong media, content that we act as emotional manipulator from people sometimes myself and live a happy life like a skylark at the gate of heaven? Perhaps even a few hundred years ago, Shakespeare pondered the matter and came to this conclusion.

" From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. "

Reference:
what to do if you're getting gaslighted, First Person, [email protected]
What is Gaslighting? by Sherri Gordon, reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW

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Andreas Helmling

5/15/2021

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Artist Andreas Helmling

The town when I have been in Germany, Karlsruhe, is a city in southwestern Germany. It is north of the Black Forest, close to the French border, and is famous for two of the highest federal courts (the Federal Constitutional court and the Federal Court of Justice) and a central hub for science and technology. Also, it has a former weapons factory, now transformed to ZKM center for art and Media.
You can also recognize eye-catching status made of sharp stainless in front of the main buildings if you visit there. When I was used to going to Ettlinger Tor, the biggest shopping center in Baden-Wuerttemberg. I was interested in the blue sculpture. (In 2011, the status moved from Ettlinger tor Platz to state entrance because of its symbolic value and renovation from the state plan). It is big-sized blue stainless artworks, representing the blue for Europe and describing the symbol for existing and future. I love the color, all kinds of blue. In my opinion, that it is an excellent symbol of the coexistence of the past and future.

Kunstwerk von Andreas Helmling Größe zweiteilig, je ca. 15/13/6 m Karlsruhe: Kultur & Tourismus https://m.karlsruhe.de/kunst/db/de/ettlinger_tor.html?kl=0

Several years later, I had a chance to meet the sculptor who made the bule status in person during my exhibition. First, he took a picture of one of my works with his manual camera. The work is one of overcome series and has a blue color with moving like tree branches. Next, he asked me to let the artwork lay down on the floor for a good quality photo. After taking a picture, he introduces me by himself with a soft smile. "My name is Andreas Helmling, an artist and a sculptor." It was the first impression of him.

When I exhibited my works, the house is called the pumphouse, located in Lauterbourg, France. It is in the countryside that can have a barbeque party and mini-concerts with my guests. We had a barbeque lunch with Korean bulgogi during the shows, and we had meaningful time to talk about each country's culture and foods.

In the summer, he invited my family and me with Yujin's family, who performed with piano in my exhibition. When I arrived at his studio, it appears a standard house door, but I was surprised to enter it, that the inside is an unexpected huge size and looks like an industrial car factory. Friendly, he took us to his workspace to show the working process, published books, and masterpieces. Then, he drew the beautiful serving table with wheels for a short break, which put the homemade desserts and coffees on it. During the coffee time, carefully and sincerely, he advised me, " Some the Koreans I met were full of passion for learning something. They constantly learn and learn very hardly. But please act something right now, don't say to do it after learning. Please, not to hesitate with any worries, unsatisfaction. You do not lack in art, and instead, I wish you could challenge to expand your areas such as furniture, fashion, and other style's art. Do it right now!"

Looking back at that time, he was a mentor who affected me to think about the essence of art and how artists act for creativity.
After moving to New York, I could touch with him by Facebook, and we imaged that he traveled to Long Island and spent summer vacation with family together. He showed me an interest in the Montauk and explained to me some books which described it. But I know that we couldn't keep our promise together forever because he passed by in 2019.
For a long time, I can't believe it, and if I feel like that, it is not real. Desperately, I wanted that it is not true, but I realized the reality quickly through there is no reply after my message.

Some day, I and my friend, Yujin remembered him and his life, that we felt grateful to him. Sadly, we can't see his activities anymore, and it was impossible to exchange regards each other, but we'll remember that the moments he gave us encourage and good motivation.
Thank you so much and gone from our sight but never from our hearts like an art.

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