I was born in Korea and immigrated to the United States when I was nineteen. Currently, my other family members are in Korea, and I live alone in the United States while studying art. I started my interest in art before I could even think, doodling on books and walls. I liked the idea of ​​being able to visualize my imagination through drawings, so I continued to draw to express my imagination and thoughts. My parents actively supported my interest in art and helped me study art formally by sending me to an art academy. I learned the basics at an art academy when I was in high school, but since they only teach art for the entrance exam, which is typical of Korea, I felt skeptical, so I quit it and started to learn art on my own. After graduating from high school, I went to a vocational school and learned illustration and three-dimensional graphic design. There, I developed a dream of becoming a game graphic designer. By visualizing what I imagined, moving and controlling it myself, I nurtured my own dream. I love video games, and I also love drawing, so becoming a game graphic designer would be a future dream that would allow me to do both of the things I love.

However, after immigrating to the United States, I had difficulty continuing my studies in art due to language and economic barriers. I joined the U.S. Navy to make ends meet, which distanced me from studying art. However, despite this, I still enjoyed drawing in my free time, and my desire to become a game graphic designer grew day by day. I started studying art again at Fullerton College with the benefit of continuing my studies after discharging from the U.S. Navy. It was the first time in a long time that I was drawing properly, but I still enjoyed creating my work. After laying the foundation at Fullerton College, I transferred to California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), and am now studying art in depth and improving my skills. 

Currently, I am trying to find originality and uniqueness in my paintings. I tried to reinterpret classical painting methods I learned in art history classes in a modern way and graft them onto my paintings. My paintings, Portrait of a Dog and Me (2021) and Puppy on a Mountain Path (2021), are paintings I drew with reference to the pointillism of Georges Seurat, a painter I respect and admire. In these paintings, I draw pictures with my dog ​​as the theme, expressing what I like and cherish. 

Moreover, to create my unique art style, I research and study traditional Korean paintings and contemporary Korean artists, and I create my style. I experimented with reconstructing my paintings to fit the modern era without forgetting the roots of where I was born and raised and creating paintings that felt Korean. In Meet the Artist (2024), drawn as an assignment for a class, I adjusted the thickness of the outer lines to give it a traditional Korean painting aesthetic and colored it in an ink-and-wash style. In the Red Riding Hood Project (2024), which I am currently working on, I am similarly using traditional Korean painting methods. I reinterpreted the story of Red Riding Hood, found similarities with Korea’s painful history, and made it into a story about comfort women during the Japanese colonial period. I designed it with the idea that more people can sympathize and understand Korean history by expressing familiar stories in unfamiliar subjects. 

In this way, I have been working hard to draw pictures I like, studying and researching to achieve my dream of becoming a game graphic designer and developing my unique style.