Give yourself a present!

Give yourself a present!

 ​Yesterday, I illustrated an image of a happy elephant as soon as I arrived home from a trip to Boston. I had previously drawn an elephant picture of Learned Helplessness before setting out for Boston. 

  When an elephant has been tied to a stake since a baby, it will struggle to get out of it at the first attempt. Then they keep failing, their feet hurt, and they give up and adopt the limitation. The problem is going after then. A fully grown elephant may break free from thin shackles, but they do not. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free. It calls tied elephant syndrome is that they have already learned helplessness since a baby.  It is a metaphorical story often used in psychology to express learned helplessness. I created an image of that learned helplessness and painted its subsequent elephant. It is about a happy elephant that can finally break away from a frame, made by itself. 

 What keeps the elephant from accepting helplessness and making no attempts? Do you live with your own unique identity? Or are you living according to the identity set by others?

 When I was on a trip, I have ever been seen a variety of radios on decorating shelves. Before the invention of television, the radio was the only channel through which people provided information, alerted people to crises, and comforted and communicated through songs. It's a radio that the whole family sat down to listen to, and it has so many different shapes and colors. So are people. They express their voices in various shapes and colors. I want my paintings to have their own colors and make their own sounds.  

Old memories, 2021, Myungja Anna Koh

  There is a song I often listen to on the car radio around this month as always. It's a song called Have Yourself a  Merry little Christmas by Sam Smith. 

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
Your troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yule-tide gay
From now on
Your troubles will be miles away
Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who I dear to us
They gather near to us once more
Through the years
We'll always be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
So have yourself a merry little Christmas
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

  It is hard to recognize and accept our unique shape and color when we are in the middle of the dark tunnel of life. Whenever I face any difficulties, I am used to looking back with a monologue that It's all because of me. It's my fault and should have done better. Unfortunately, this is the sound of self-reproach. You are tormenting yourself too much. But when you are in a dark tunnel, it is difficult to nurture and maintain bright energy. So life is hard. Strangely, even the people around you become cold when you are in such a dark tunnel. With no one in the world to hold my hand and no one to listen to, it's like being trapped on an island.

​ But the more you are desperate, the more you have to give yourself a gift like the lyrics of a song. In that sense, I completed another illustration. The title is Give Yourself a Gift.

 I wish I could protect myself from the burnout caused by the prolonged corona crisis and be able to tell myself that everything is OK and everything will be OK in times like these.

Give yourself a present!, 2021, Myungja Anna Koh