Northern California Member

“It’s A Girl” charcoal pieces, each bearing a Korean female name, hang from hemp ropes strung between three door jambs. Dried red peppers, which represent the birth of a male, are strewn on the floor.

This piece is an altered representation of the Korean custom of announcing births: When a female is born, charcoal is attached to a hemp rope and hung outside of the front door; but when a boy is born, red peppers, signaling joy, are hung in celebration.

In the old days, many Korean parents named their daughters male names in the hopes that their mothers would bear sons instead of daughters. Although this tradition is not widely practiced, many women in my generation were given male names and today continue to wear this badge.

It’s A Girl
Acrylic, charcoals hemp ropes, dried red peppers on door jams,
82″(H) x55″(D)x70″(W), 1999.

Northern California Member

Conversation with My Father is based on actual excerpts from over 100 letters I received from my father after I left Korea to make my home in the United States; these “conversations” ended abruptly with his death four years later.

Although the painting is a tribute to my father and an expression of my grief, I realized that the piece must have value for the viewer who does not read Korean. That value is found not only in the beauty of the calligraphy, but in the relationship of strong, dark letters in the foreground the less defined, almost ghostly, characters that seem to hang suspended in the background. For me, this suggests the tension between what was said (foreground) and what was not said (background), the tension between life and death, the known and the unknown.                                                                             

Conversation with My Father
Sumi ink on Hanji Korean paper, acrylic mounted on canvas,
54″(H)x132″(H), 1997.