On the 11th , a pseudonymous England-based street artist, Banksy uploaded three pictures of a mural depicting a gymnast balancing on a handstand on her Instagram and posted the caption “Borodyanka, Ukraine”.

  ​Borodyanka, northwest of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was hit hard by Russian bombing in February of this year, at the beginning of the war. Russian forces occupied the area shortly after the outbreak of war and retreated in April.

This place, where a lot of civilian damage occurred, such as the discovery of mass graves, is in the midst of reconstruction after the Russian army withdrew. The mural Banksy shared was painted on the remains of buildings destroyed by bombing.

  ​Banksy is a graffiti artist who paints murals on streets and buildings in cities around the world.

​  His work, which does not reveal his face or real name, satirizes anti-war, environmental pollution, refugees, and child poverty.

  Every time I look at his graffiti, I think of beautiful weeds that bloom without names on the streets. How can such a beautiful flower grow in such a messy and dark alley? I think of this when I see the weeds growing between the sidewalk blocks in a dark back alley. However, Banksy's work resembles these weeds a lot. Just as the vivid beauty seen in the flower of an unknown weed illuminates a messy alley where not even a single ray of light enters, his works have a strange vitality and energy.

  ​Looking at the murals presumed to be his work in the ruins of Ukraine, people pray for the day when the war will end soon and the spring of peace will come and Ukrainian children will happily play gymnastics and sing songs.

  Since 2013, there is a Korean artist who I found his works on Facebook and was amazed at the artistry and philosophy. Most of his works are big sized canvas or scrolled woven linen over 100 inches long, and all of them are painted by using fingers, fingertips, and palms instead of brushes. He painted mostly in shades of black, so it feels as if a single giant shadow is moving to create a meaningful shape.  

  His paintings are considered representative artworks under the modern classicism genre and are praised worldwide. 

 Gugu Kim's work is mainly defined as 'finger painting' because he paints only with his fingers and hands. Just like Eastern and Western painters usually use their fingertips to dip their fingertips in ink and use their fingertips to touch the canvas instead of a brush, he completes her work through repetitive work, as if ink was printed using fingertips with fingerprints. In this sense, it would be more appropriate to define his work as "finger stamping", which distinguishes it from the traditional finger painting as we know it.

  ​Gugu Kim dips one or two fingers in traditional ink, then dips them directly onto the canvas and presses them together for finger painting. He creates images by using  black and white contrasts, from light tones to dark colors through countless touches, without drawing on the base line or using the techniques of traditional brush strokes. Some parts of the picture are expressed as very small, like dots, but in parts where the image needs to be relatively large, it is stamped with two or three fingers. Gugu paints black areas that should be expressed very darkly, or stamps heavily when expressing dark shades, so that the white canvas cannot be seen through continuous overcoating. On the other hand, in the part that needs to be expressed very brightly, touch it very lightly once or twice to make the viewer unconsciously sense the background color of the canvas. (excerpt by Harvard Art Museum)

  His works also incorporate Korean aspects. He uses natural ingredients that have existed for a long time such as charcoal, pastel and stone powder. He also uses woven linen canvas that is sold in scrolls instead of the framed kind.
 
Koreans are traditionally called a “white-clad race,” meaning that Koreans in ancient times used to wear white and revered the color. Kim’s monotone paintings accentuate this Korean quality while also following the principles of ying and the yang. But Kim says that his works have interpreted such traditional Korean styles into something more modern through a process that he calls “new Koreanization.”  

Image by Facebook

  ​His work is always public-friendly. It is a technique that can be easily understood even by those who do not know art, from familiar materials commonly seen around to simplified expressions. The work always has a message to the public. As a homosexual and AIDS patient, he treated the situation surrounding him as a social problem, launched a social movement, and reflected political issues to the front of his work.

  ​To borrow Yoko Ono's words, Keith Haring is a writer who expresses a heavy and difficult subject in a bright and witty manner. Haring expresses the social issues of homosexuality and AIDS in a simple and pleasant way in his own art.

 ​For students with visual problems, low vision students, or students with learning disabilities, Keith Haring's work is very effective. His work always has bold lines and is very simple, yet easy to understand what he means at a glance.

  Today, I would like to introduce Joachim Hirling an artist from Germany. He is an artist I personally respect and consider as a mentor. The first place I met him was at the Poly  Gallery, where I made a debut. He gave me the opportunity to get an interview for an exhibition there.   There is something very impressive about my first visit to his atelier. When he pushed hard against the high-ceiling  his atelier's partition wall, a huge bookshelf that could reach from the ceiling to the floor came out, and the bookshelf was stacked with many books. For me, who had a prejudice that a painter simply focused on drawing skills, that bookcase led me to a new world where I could have the attitude of a true artist.

   Since then, I've been drawing, but I'm also studying hard at the same time. Since then, I know that painting is not simply technical. Although he is German, he has very interested in the East culture and Art. He actually studied Chinese calligraphy in Taiwan. And He made a dynamic oil work with this calligraphy as a motif. Looking at his work, I knew that letters could literally be works of art.

  When you look at Chinese calligraphy, each letter is full of energy. Also, depending on who is holding the brush, the size and strength of the letters are different. Some letters are like horses running with their manes waving, while others are like a lark singing from a branch. Looking at such letters, it is like a work of art.  Joachim, introduced earlier, captures the energy of these letters well and leaves it as a work.  

  ​The pictures here are my personal favorites among the pictures introduced chronologically in the artwork menu on his website. Most of all, I like the green circular picture above. This painting could be seen in person at his exhibition. It's like a close-up of a person's pupil, but it's like a jungle, and it's like a matrix space where countless letters fall to the ground. If you look at this picture for yourself, you will probably know that this image will stay with you for a long time.

  ​Below is his studio introduced on the website.

​I also personally hope to see his wonderful work in the US and in the world as well.

  ​I attended the outdoor art show held at Gallery North. It's my first experience selling it on a table outdoors. And it was a precious time to meet people who love painting more closely.

   Even as a painter who sells paintings, there are always secret concerns and difficulties. It will be in any field.
   I'm worried what if my painting isn't worth the money. I'm also worried that people might have bought my paintings with the money they would have bought for something else. I wonder if my paintings can bring happiness, joy, and comfort to people the way I want them to.

​  There is a Korean poet who wrote this artist's heart into poetry. His poetry is written in Korean, so I tried to translate it into English a little bit to make it easier to understand.

  ​‘Positive thoughts about rice’ by Ham Min-bok

 
If it's thirty thousand won for a poem 

(note: won is korean currency and it worth to around 1400 dollar in this time)

Even if I want to be too stingy

(note: He thinks that it's too cheap.)

If I think that the price is two Mal of rice,

(note; Mal means that it is a unit of measurement of volume, and one Mal has a volume of about 18 liters. It is also called two (斗). One Mal is ten, and ten Mal are one Sum. )

In no time, my heart becomes like warm rice

3,000 won for a book of poetry

Even if I want to be loose compared to my sincerity

One bowl of soup

My poetry collection is as big as a bowl of soup

Can my book warm people's hearts?

Thinking about it, I'm still far away

If a book of poetry is sold

I get three hundred won back

Even though I thought it was a loss

When I think of a drop of coarse salt

I have no heart to be hurt like the blue sea


Source: Senior Daily (http://www.seniormaeil.com)

  I would like to express my sincere thanks to the painting lovers who bought my paintings today. Thanks to you, I think I will be able to draw with a more sincere heart in the future. This will make my art world deeper and richer. This is my promise to everyone who bought my paintings today.