​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.

 Korea is the only divided country in the world and cultural and ideological confrontation exist as the tension between the South and North Korea. 

 On July 27, 1953, when the Korean War remained locked in a stalemate, the United States, China and the former Soviet Union established a ceasefire line on the 38th parallel that cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half. The 240-kilometer-long ceasefire line soon changed into the Military Demarcation Line, and South and North Korea reserved 2 kilometers each south and north of the line, creating a 4-kilometer-wide strip of land that was designated the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ). 

 In February 1954, under the authority of a U.S. army commander, an invisible line called the "civilian passage restriction line" was drawn along the area within 5 to 20 kilometers south of the DMZ's southern boundary for the protection of military exercises around the borderline and military facilities, as well as security. 

 Following the establishment of the "civilian passage restriction line," the activities of civilians within the area were strictly controlled. In the 1990s, the South Korean government took a step to reduce the restricted area by moving the southern boundary of the area upward. As a result, the number of residents affected by the ban decreased from 37,000 in 111 villages to 18,000 in 60 villages. In 2001, the government announced a set of rules to ease restrictions on residents in the area. 

 As part of the move, residents were allowed to farm in the area after going through the necessary procedures outlined in the law on protection of military facilities. 

  Indeed, in stark contrast to its name, the 4-kilometer-long DMZ is a heavily guarded area where hundreds of thousands of mines are buried. 

  Under the inter-Korean agreement to reconnect the Gyeonguiseon rail line linking Seoul in South Korea with Sinuiju in North Korea, on September 18, 2000 South Korea began clearing the mines in the 80-meter-wide, 12-kilometer-long strip in the DMZ where there rail and road are supposed to be built. 

 More than 100,000 mines were cleared, taking up about 35 percent of the total construction cost of the railway project, estimated at $ 1.5 billion.

 Nevertheless, the DMZ and surrounding area within the civilian passage restriction line have remained untouched by humans for decades and are blessed with an abundance of flora and fauna that can be found only in ecology books. It's hard to believe that the land was totally destroyed by gunfire during the Korean War. 

 The Korean artists hope to awaken the public to the importance of peace and the environment, as well as give a message of hope to future generations by hosting diverse cultural events in locations near the DMZ, a symbol of the tragic history of Korea as a divided nation. 

  ​Artist Jae-eun Choi, who participated in the 15th Venice Biennale architecture exhibition by creating artworks with the hope of peace in the DMZ, a symbol of the 70-year history of division, paradoxically created an ecosystem in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Cheorwon, a symbol of the division of North and South Korea.

 Based on the fact that it has become a conservation area, we have been planning a 'hanging garden' project across the DMZ for several years.

  The 'Hanging Garden' is a 13km round-trip walking path that floats 3~6m above the ground using only bamboo and natural materials. It protects humans from landmines buried in the DMZ, protects nature from humans, and induces ecological coexistence.

 Currently, there are a number of mines buried in the DMZ, which are estimated to take 489 years to clear. Thirteen hanging gardens will be installed in the middle of the pedestrian path, a 20m high observation tower 'Wind Tower' near the military demarcation line, and a seed bank and ecosystem library for storing endangered plant seeds at both ends of the pedestrian path.

​ It is a concept for a large-scale installation that looks at the supernatural ecosystem that has not been touched by humans in the DMZ and captures the meaning of division recovery.

 Arrangement  is defined as “the act of lowering the entropy (disorder) of life”. Entropy, according to the second law of thermodynamics, refers to the increase in disorder with time.

​ Since then, it has become a term used in statistics and social sciences as well. According to the second law of thermodynamics, all matter and energy in nature move in a direction of increasing disorder with the passage of time. By the way, the only thing that reverses entropy is ‘life’. Life forms a new order by absorbing scattered substances.

  Cleanup is to reduce the number and quantity of things surrounding your area. It is to reduce the number and amount of objects to be organized and put them within the range of one's control.

  Tidying is about positioning  so that they are easy to use  where they should be so they can be easily found the next time you use them.

​ The object of tidying up does not necessarily mean only things. Tidying up can target a variety of things, such as space, time, relationships, and to-dos.

  ​In fact, there is an artist who take advantage of this effect of tidying up and reflect it on their works of art. 

​ Adam Hillman, who is called an object arranger, makes even tidying up into a single piece of work. Various objects from cotton swabs and matches to Oreos and cereals form various patterns through his hands.

  A visual artist from New Jersey, he creates a work of art by matching the colors and patterns of common objects in everyday life. A wonderful piece that perfectly converges to one rule that looks like an obsessive compulsive disorder shows the potential that even common materials in everyday life can become works of art.

Image source by instagram.

  Savant syndrome is a phenomenon in which people with autism perform very well in a specific field.

  Among them, the Greek artist Maria Iliou, a Servant Artist who is particularly prominent in the field of art, is the founder and director of the Autism Artists Organization, working for the rights of Servant Artists.

​ Below is the official website she created.

 The Art of Autism is a nonprofit which empowers autistic people and their families through participation in the arts.

  ​If you go to the site below, you can see artists and their works who overcame their obstacles and difficulties and proudly completed their own art world. You can also post with the desire to help autistic painters and see the artists who support them and their works.

  The article below was written by an artist with an autism spectrum named Amanda Porche.

 She is a New York City based artist and photographer. In addition to autism, she also has anxiety, depression and undiagnosed OCD. 

She writes about her vivid experiences as she went through a pandemic with a disorder called autism. She says that she was able to overcome difficulties only through painting in the midst of her experiences, the fear of death, and the deprivation of everyday life.  

  She was at the forefront of, or at the center of, the 2020 pandemic. New York City, where she lived, was an extreme global epicenter that broadcasted in real time all over the world due to the Covid-19.  

  She had to hear countless sirens. At the peak of the epidemic, a death siren could be heard on average every two to five minutes. At first she counted all the sirens. In fact, people with autism are very sensitive to external stimuli, especially sounds. From this point of view, it seems that the last pandemic situation has been a more difficult time for people suffering from autism or mental pain.

  But I admire her amazing determination and enthusiasm to overcome. She began painting for a long time, feeling the fear of countless deaths. Looking at her paintings during this period, you can see how desperate and painful she was. However, rather than sitting down in pain, she took a colored pencil and sometimes squeezing acrylic paints to express her feelings through painting.

 I think her paintings are a testament to the pain she overcame. And the art of painting never betrayed her. Through painting, she healed her complicated and devastated mind, and furthermore, she wrote books and drew pictures for those who need such healing.​

 Vladyslav Yerko is as one of the most successful Ukrainian interpreters of the world classics, and acclaimed master of graphic arts Ukrainian Section IBBY highly recommends Vladyslav Yerko for Hans Christian Andersen Award. He has been a member of the National Union of Ukrainian Artists since 1989. Books with illustrations of Vladyslav Yerko were published in 20 countries.

  Perhaps, there are not so many people in Ukraine and in the world, who don’t know name of Vladyslav Yerko. “The Snow Queen” with his illustrations is published from Great Britain to South Korea and received a lot of appreciative comments and awards.

  ​The pictures below are some of his works of fairy tales by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

  As you can see from the picture above, his painting style is very realistic and detailed, and contains images that have a lot of meaning on one screen. Crossing between reality and fantasy, even looking at just one picture, you fall into the illusion that you are reading a book. Children who like to let their imagination run wild will have many dreams for a long time looking at his paintings.

  His colorful, exquisite, emotional illustrations attract everyone, who just open his books. The artist does not depict the plot of the text, but fills it with emotions, visual details, thousands of shades and lines. 

  ​However, although he was an illustrator who drew such fantastic, mythologically beautiful pictures, when he actually made his paintings known to each publisher, he had to be rejected because of the complexity and numerous details of the paintings.

  ​Perhaps, from the standpoint of a publishing company that prints and sells, they prefer animated pictures that are easy to read and consume rather than artistic pictures like his paintings.

  But the reader's eyes were different and accurate. Within just a few years, the Snow Queen, the fairy tale of Andersen's fairy tale with which he painted, made it into the UK Christmas gift wish list.  And it wasn't long before his illustrations exploded in popularity, making him the most successful illustrator.

  However, he doesn't like appeal as a superstar. He is skeptical of his work and does not like to praise himself and at the same time dislike being criticized.

 He said, “I deeply enjoy the process. And what happens later doesn't bother me.”

  Until he understood that he had created his own style and found his own right path. Codes and symbols intertwined in the course of a long work, depicting the artist's reflection. 

  ​If you are interested in his paintings and want to know more details, the site below will help you. It contains detailed descriptions of his statements, achievements, career and publications, as well as his biography.

  Go to the contents as shown as below: go !

  ​The following is a collection of pictures that personally moved me.

  ​Looking at the pictures above, I think it is the most beautiful children's book in the world. I bought it for my daughter because I wanted to keep it personally. When the picture book arrives, I would like to share the contents one by one.