I live in two different worlds. My body exists in the space I belong now and my spirit is split in two different cultures. My paintings are influenced by both Asian and Western cultures. I grew up in South Korea but moved to America with my family when I was 14. I first experienced cultural differences, but I started to slowly become Korean-American. When I was younger, I adapted to Asian culture, but when I was a teenager, my environment changed naturally to the Western culture.  I always wanted freedom from traditional Asian Confucian culture and I still desire a total freedom from the places I belong. One day, I thought of myself as no longer Korean or American. I felt I was losing my identity. Based on my experiences of cultural changes, I started to throw my psychological and emotional thoughts about losing my identity on to the canvases.

            My recent paintings are a series of contemporary women’s portraits made by utilizing fabrics and their patterns. I found a traditional Asian feminine beauty in the fabrics and embroidery that I filled with contemporary art to represent Western culture. I try to balance my painting between traditional and contemporary style, and somewhere between representation and abstraction.  Also, I utilized the decorative and colorful prints of fabric as a metaphor for standard beauty that we created in modern society. People obsess about women’s bodies. This society obsession results in women desiring the same looks and becoming one of the patterns like in the fabric. To me, being a woman in this society means imprisoning ourselves to fit superficial beauty. Women have started to lose their identities, like I experienced from cultural differences. I believe each individual female has their own beauty in a unique way and the real beauty comes from inside of their body.