Sold out my piece and a reception for Winners Showcase 2025!

Sold out my piece and a reception for Winners Showcase 2025!

Today is the reception for the Winners Showcase at my local gallery, Mills Pond Gallery. I was invited to this exhibition after receiving an award at last year’s Members Showcase. I am truly delighted to have this opportunity to share my love, thoughts, exploration, and artistic answers with the community. This exhibition allows me to connect with others through art and express my creative journey. I am grateful for the chance to be part of this event and to contribute to the vibrant local art scene.

First of all, at the opening, I received the good news that my work below was sold. I would like to express my gratitude to the art lovers who purchased this painting, which symbolizes their love for art and their pursuit of authenticity.

The core message of this exhibition is "authenticity and love for art." I have spent the past year asking myself, "What is art?" and trying to draw this answer. The answer to this question was more valuable than participating in a contest and winning an award.

As an artist who draws, I get asked countless questions. Questions about why I draw and whether drawing helps me make a living. Especially in a reality where only the top few percent of artists enjoy fame and fortune and the remaining artists have to fiercely develop survival skills to make a living, these questions are burdensome for artists.

It feels like a question of whether drawing is more meaningful than other fields of study, such as IT technology, engineering, medicine that receive amazing attention, or entertainment that increases the number of followers every time you update your Instagram. I know the importance of art from an artist's perspective, but it is easy to think of this as a professional belief. So last year, I began to explore art as an instinct that is stronger than survival.

And I found the answer in the Altamira cave paintings. It was a beautiful cow drawing that was drawn 36,000 years ago in a dark cave to overcome fear for survival. When language and civilization did not exist and only the instinct for survival remained in their hearts, humans drew pictures. Did they do it because they believed that the act of drawing pictures would relieve their vague fears? Or was it for religious purposes, or simply for records like diaries or educational prints?

However, when I look at the beauty, delicacy, and dynamism of the cows drawn in the cave, I think that they were not drawn for any special purpose. If it were for that purpose, there would be no need to draw them so beautifully if they were just records. They seem to have done their best and drawn them with sincerity as if they were preparing for some art contest.

And I feel a certain “joy” in their drawings. I think that humans drew these pictures with an instinct stronger than survival. This is the strong energy and purity that we living in modern times are unfortunately fading away.

Perhaps they enjoyed the joy of drawing and expressing something on the wall. And that joy must have been so strong that it made them forget the fierce world outside the cave or the fear of a cave lion that might come and take their lives. So they must have painted with a stronger desire than the desire to survive.

That's why I thought that "art" is something that we should create and pursue with sincerity throughout our lives. When we create something with this kind of heart, the world of art presents us with amazing energy and vision. It must be the same feeling of joy and hope that mankind felt tens of thousands of years ago. I wanted to share this image and inspiration that I felt, so I painted a series of paintings, and today, I finally opened it to the public. I hope that my enlightenment and confession of the year will be well conveyed at the Millspond Gallery from March 15 to April 11.