Today, I completed three feelings of sunflowers.

  Especially Koreans like sunflower paintings. The yellow of sunflowers is similar to the color of gold. Above all, the bright yellow light and the energy of its color illuminate the dark surroundings like a candle, giving the impression that everything will be well and well in the future.

  ​I mainly drew sunflowers with acrylic and digital, but this time I tried with watercolor.

​For the first time, sunflowers are seen moving in the wind and rain. The sun is shining, but suddenly the clouds come and it rains. The sunflower in the picture keeps her head fixed desperately toward the sun. Sunflowers know. The rain and wind will pass in an instant and the brilliant sun will rise again. The wind blows, but like the flower language of pride, the sunflower keeps its place and never retreats.

  ​The sunflower that survived the storm is covered with scars here and there. But the bright pink sun shines, and the yellow sunflower keeps its place even more beautiful.

  ​And finally the season of the bright sun has come. The sunflowers again tilt their heads towards the sun. Brilliant light pours down over the sunflowers.

   The yellow symbolizes happiness, warmth and sunshine in most cultures and these are characteristics of the yellow sun and its effects.

  Above all, yellow attracts people's attention at once because of its strong and vivid energy. In other words, it has a unique aura to gather energy dispersed outside into one. The closer you get to yellow, the more you can focus on your inner self, away from the complexities of your surroundings.

  This characteristic of yellow is actually contrary to the behavior of sunflowers. Sunflowers mainly orient towards the sun. In fact, it is not the sunflower flower that follows the sun, but the upper part of the stem before it blooms. Sunflower stem ends face east in the morning and west in the afternoon at sunset.

​ Sunflowers, which are heavily influenced by the outside like this, ironically have a yellow color that gathers energy inside. Personally, I feel like maybe the sunflower wanted to make the energy of the sun its own. Maybe that's why the yellow color of sunflowers feels the energy of the sun.

  ​Sunflowers like this seem like a good analogy to a pattern in life. We, who are constantly being influenced by external influences, also want to make it our own energy. But it's not always the sunny day. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and create energy without relying on the sun.

​  Sunflowers are handling this process so well. When I look around, I realize that even a little sunflower has a lot of life lessons.

  Today, I visited Mills Pond Gallery to deliver a picture to hang on the member showcase.

  The artist statements written for this group exhibition are as follows as below. 

  ​Before anything else, I think 2022 will be a meaningful year to fill in this shortcoming. Actually, ten years had passed since 2011, when I made my first debut at the Poly Gallery in Karlsruhe, Germany, and now it is time to prepare for another jump. In theory, after ten years of debuting in any field, there is margin and understanding to get out of a relatively narrow perspective and see a general and long-term view of any situation. Many things happen between the painters who have been walking on an unparalleled path for the past ten years. The way in my case was this: At first, like first love, I start with excitement and a pure heart. Then I discover that this path requires patience and a long walk. I run because I want to walk faster or get there quicker than others when that happens.
 
  And then, from time to time, I must go through trial and error. But there is always a great lesson in failure and trial and error. As I learn these lessons and reflect on them, the best solution is to return to the beginner's mind. The passion comes back. A tired gait becomes lively. With a sincere heart, I pick up the brush again and paint.
 
  ​The painting at this time is not something that arouses awe and admiration from others but is drawn for oneself, exactly saying, for myself. I draw to the extent that I understand and am satisfied with myself. When I draw, I get comfort from pictures. In doing so, I realize that painting is not just a skill, a discipline, or a tool, but life itself. I have become humbler.
And when I get that realization, I find myself no longer impatient. Just as I don't have to say I'm this great in life, I also realize that I don't have to show off that I'm so good at drawing. As I understand that painting is just a window that shows what I want to show, I gradually become freer.
 
​In this regard, I chose the material with a heart of starting over. That's one-dollar watercolor paint. I hope that everyone can easily access paintings, receive comfort, and have fun through pictures. Mainly, I would like to express myself freely and free from the pressure of the most expensive art materials. The subject of the drawing is inspired by everyday life. Therefore, the daily topic changes every day. In this first offline member exhibition, I would like to show you one of them, "Two moving fish."

  ​The work submitted for this group exhibition is moving two fish. Based on the oriental "yin and yang " theory, I drew the movement of red and blue beta fish.
 
​ Yin-Yang is the framework of the idea that all things exist based on the understanding of natural phenomena, with the energy of heaven above and the energy of the earth below. Since the shape and basis of all things can be understood as the energy of yin and yang, it was believed that the changing and developing phenomena were also made by the sympathy of the two energies of yin and yang.
 
 
 To the theory that the other two energy are born, grow. Then die through confrontation and sympathy. They have a particular cycle, complement each other, weaken, and dominate. Everything in the universe changes through mutually complementary actions, and order is restored, maintained, and evolves.
 
My art is expressed based on this theory. In other words, I believe that light does not determine the beauty of an object but that the energy of the object itself determines its beauty. Therefore, the art I pursue is always to explore these energies. If things are inherently beautiful, it is because of their inner energy and not external factors. Therefore, as long as I capture that energy, I will be able to express the object's beauty well.
 
Ultimately, if I can express this vital energy, there will be no need for splendid external lights, artificial lights, or dazzling colors. I just need to feel and catch the waves of energy.
 Personally, I am delighted to show the moving two fish created as part of one of these processes on display at the Mills Pond Gallery in my local area.
 
​ You can also see my other works on the website below.
https://www.annakoh.com 
 

  ​The above picture is a digital picture drawn with a few keywords through a site that draws pictures with artificial intelligence, that is, an artificial intelligence picture generated artwork site.

 ​Creation SettingsPreset StyleMatte
Text Prompts"dream, cloud, tulip" - weight: 1
"detailed matte painting" - weight: 0.9
Initial ResolutionThumb
RuntimeShort
Seed598263

The related site, NightCafe Creator is shown by AI about my digital creation as below. 

The NightCafe Creator has two types such as text to image' video or style transfer. 

 ​In this way, it is possible to tell the AI ​​what you want to express and turn it into a picture or transform your image into another style.

 Artificial intelligence is a machine learning algorithm that builds drawing skills by looking at and training many real drawings. The larger the number of drawings used in machine learning, the more similar even the brushstrokes to those drawn by the hands.

  Recently, AI is replacing a part of human experience and creativity.  The Ai technology also expanded the scope to art, which was considered an inviolable realm only for humans. Now, a new wave is blowing in the art world in an era where the works drawn by AI painters are attracting attention.

 ​Just as humans learn from seeing, hearing, experiencing, and creating with inspiration from a young age, the day is not far off when AI will show the public a sense of the level of human creativity.

 ​Below are pictures drawn by artificial intelligence.

  ​Facing this reality makes me anxious as a painter. It's exhausting to think that computers can do more than we do in a situation where we've been drawing and loving for a long time. And recently, even some painters are using AI Creator to get their imaginary picture.

 However rising popularity of AI art today is similar to the situation when the camera first invented and appeared to the public in the 19th century. With the usage of the camera, it overturned our belief that only painters could reproduce objects as they were in the world. Many people at the time predicted that the artist's skill would never keep up with the skill of photography and would disappear, but it soon proved that the realm of the painter was different from the realm of photography.

  Therefore, the profession of a painter will not disappear one day suddenly due to the changes and demands of the times. However, as the painting style of painters has changed due to the development of photography technology and painters have built their own art world in their own way as a way of survival, another challenge and ceaseless effort will be required

  I am also thinking about how to survive in the age of artificial intelligence. The time has come when we have to compete with computers rather than other artists.  

  The AI ​​art market is expected to grow significantly in the future. According to the British media The Telegraph, the AI ​​art market is expected to reach $100 million worldwide within the next three to five years.

 ​If so, we may be being pushed by an artificial intelligence painter from the start. But I believe that we are human, our works based on our unique soul, attitude, ethics, and emotions will be different from those drawn by artificial intelligence.

  ​Today, I completed a painting with the theme of a cloudy day.

  ​I continue to paint with one dollar watercolor paints.

  ​As a child, I enjoyed watching the clouds pass by in the sky. Sometimes it flows quickly, sometimes it flows like a slow-winding thread. Sometimes it spreads like white paint on blue paper. The black and gray dark clouds that come suddenly from somewhere also spread nicely like a scene from an oriental painting.

 ​As the sun goes down, the whole sky suddenly turns pink. When the sun goes down, it looks like gold splatters has been thrown all over the place. It is rare, but sometimes it turns into a purple sky.

 Seeing the sky change into various shapes and colors with various movements every day, I feel that it is art itself. As a child, I believed in the existence of God through this beautiful and dynamic sky. Without God, there would be no need to make the sky so beautiful.  

  ​For painters, the clouds and the sea are common subjects. In particular, clouds, which appear in various shapes in the sky, are also the objects of any painting.

  I also wanted to express clouds, so I picked up a brush. I wanted to capture the dynamic appearance of the brush.  The beach on a cloudy day is turbulent and active. Partial showers from afar make me feel lonely from the beach.

  I imagine this feeling in my head. And transfer the image that comes to mind with a brush.
   Anyway, I draw based on the image in my head, so I can add or subtract. It is  good things at will. In my paintings, I am the creator myself.

 I drew many clouds in the sky. And it made it rain in the distance. I built a small island in the sea and made three seagulls fly around it. And I added another island for worries that the island would be lonely.

  ​For me, the study on clouds is currently in progress. Just as the clouds don't show the same image every day, I hope the clouds in my paintings are like that too.

  ​Finally, a small cherry tree in my backyard has bloomed. When this flower blooms, starting with the cherry tree, the flowers that my husband and I planted continue to bloom in order.

  ​Actually, there were two cherry trees in my yard. Among them, a tree with pink cherry blossoms fell down in a strong wind a long time ago. And now a small cherry tree announces spring in the backyard instead.

 ​Cherry blossoms boast their beauty as they bloom like popcorn in the bright and shining spring sunlight. That is why, in April, I always take pictures of these beautiful cherry blossoms with my camera.

  It is mysterious that five petals come together to express such a dazzling brightness. The thin petals flew like butterflies in the warm spring wind and fall to the ground. Even the fallen petals beautifully cover the floor as if it were painted with watercolor paint.

  I wanted to paint such a dazzling cherry blossom someday when I have the chance. So today, I painted it with 1 dollar  watercolor paint. 

  I don't want to look at a picture of this cherry blossom and copy it from the photos. Because even a photograph cannot capture the splendid beauty of the flowers. If I look at a photograph and draw a beauty that cannot be captured in a photograph, the wonder of that beauty will not be fully expressed.

 ​So, relying on the image in my mind, I first drew a branch with a medium-sized, No. 12 watercolor brush.

 ​The cherry blossoms I saw today sparkled in the spring sunlight, emitting a purple light that was not white. When I looked up from under the little cherry blossom tree, the whole world turned purple, as if I had seen it on a colored film.

  ​I drew the picture while remembering the happiness, anticipation, hope, and mystery I felt when I saw the purple glittering world.