A Blossoming Artist
See more of this artist’s paintings at the end of this article.
“Drawing is like a diary.” This sentiment is expressed by Seo Yeong-hwa, a native of Gwangju who has spent most of her life here but also has had itinerant stretches that have served to forge both her art and who she is as a person. Her unique path took a divergent turn with her decision to forgo high school in favor of taking the equivalency exam. This decision resulted in her being a 15-year-old (international age) with an abundance of time at her disposal.
“My mom pushed me to go to university,” she explained, “but I didn’t want to go to university. That was not my aim.” She continued, “I felt so constrained,like some energy should go outside of me.” A bout of wanderlust would soon help her discover an outlet. “I wanted to see the world. I wanted to make my own standard by my own experience, not just by what others said.”
She embarked on a trip to Australia for three months by herself. It was there that her perception started to shift. “That really changed my view because I met nudists, I met a self-sufficient community that lives in the Outback.” She kept a diary of her experiences, but “the words weren’t enough.” She began to capture her experiences with “cheap colored pencils and a sketchbook”she had brought with her. This way of expressing herself led to a new direction in her life.
At age 17 she enrolled in the animated film program at Chosun University.“The reason I took art as a major was a lot of Western people looked at my diary and said you should go to art school,” she explained. However, her foray into formal art training proved to be short-lived. After one semester, she knew it wasn’t a good fit for her “I wasn’t fulfilled by school. It sounds a bit dramatic, but you just draw because you have to sometimes. But at school I felt like I had nothing to draw – I felt like something was gone inside of me. So,I quit.”
Following her time at Chosun, Seo traveled to northern Europe. On the streets of Sweden, she had something of an epiphany: “Everything in this world is a picture.” However, she wasn’t quite ready to paint that picture just yet. She further explained, “You need time to accumulate. When the time comes,then you will draw.” But she wasn’t ready, and from that moment on, she didn’t draw for some time.
From there, her path took many turns. She lived in Japan at age 18 with the goal to attend university in Tokyo. She had to abandon that ambition, however, due to the prohibitive living expenses involved. It was crushing at the time: “I quit my dream because of economics – I felt my life was stopped there. But I was wrong.” Seo decided to put her love of travel into practical use and went on to finish a degree in tourism in 2008, followed by working fora travel agency. “I thought I could be a tourist and earn money while I traveled.” That was followed by a return to education and a degree in English Literature, which would lead to further employment opportunities.
When she was 20, one of her mother’s friends opened a hagwon and asked her to become a teacher. It was not an option about which she had given much prior thought. “English was just a thing I could do, not really by ‘study’-studying, but by travel.”
Teaching English was not the only non-artistic endeavor she pursued after leaving Chosun, however. Seo also earned a certification in Seoul and worked for a trading company for a time. “I wanted to be a really successful career woman like my mom.” However, she admitted that doing so was only accomplished by “pressing all of [her] characteristics inside [her].” Her time in the corporate world exposed her to some of its unsavory aspects. “I saw the darkest part, which I never imagined while I was a student.”
Having those experiences, she had seen “what [she] needed to see” to move on from the business world without regret. She was ready to return to art. “Suddenly, I took up a brush and painted.”
To explain her recent resurgence of artistic output, she offers, “Maybe I got purified by my kitties.” Seo is referring to Sia and Coco, her two Siamese cats that have served not only as inspiration for her return to art but also as frequent models. Her pet-centric works recently caught the eye of a local pet shop, and she has been commissioned to create some promotional artwork for the business. However, when asked if doing art for a living is part of her plan, she sounds unsure: “Economically it doesn’t make you a fortune.” It is not financial concerns that seem to be foremost in her mind, though, but the role of an expressive outlet that art plays in her life. “Drawing, is the thing I do, somehow, whenever I feel complicated. I feel like everything’s been solved after drawing.”
Seo is currently finishing a master’s course in cosmetic and perfume science and is weighing her options, art-related and otherwise, for the future.