‘I want everyone to be happy, find peace of mind and joy and escape from life’s shackles.’
Artist: 홍지연 / Hong Ji Yeun
Artistic style: Paintings full of joyful life and colour
Biggest artistic influence: Her Grandmother
About the Artist
Hong describes herself as an artist who creates ‘Kkumteuri’ (Wigglies in English), as part of her search for happiness, something which she wants for everyone. Hong has loved drawing since she was young, and studied art at university. At that point in her life, most of her creations were still life and landscape. However, things changed for Hong in 2020, when she attending postgraduate school and was at advised by her professor to think about creating her own style of work, something that no one in the world has drawn before. And so! through hard work Hong created colourful and delightful Kkumteuri. The idea came from a feeling of relief, which Hong experienced as a “wriggle in her heart” which, as described on the Korean Art website, “manifested outwardly as paintings full of joyful life and colour”. I would say that a better description of her artwork probably can’t be found. ‘Thankfully’, Hong says, her ‘Kkumteuri were loved from the very first exhibition’ and launched her career as a Kkumteuri artist.
Inspiration
Hong notes that given the vivid use of colour, that it has been her experience that most of the people who see her Kkumteuri believe that she, the artist must be in her 20s or 30s, but that she is not that young, reminding me that she only started to be known as a creator of Kkumteuri four years ago. Starting out as at artist later in life, as she describes it, she has found that there are some difficulties, but her role model is ‘Grandma Moses, who started drawing at the age of 75 and drew over 1600 pieces of artwork until the age of 101. Compared to her, I’m in my youth, and just standing at the starting point’. Thoughts like these motivate Hong, and keep her spirit strong, saying, ‘I can’t give up when I think about Grandma Moses. I will continue my work until I become 100 years old like her.
How do you overcome artistic blocks?
I pause the work process for a while when the artwork is not satisfying. I take a time until the new ideas come up and start the new one.
What challenges have you faced over the course of your career?
The most challenging one was finance. I use a lot of acrylic paints in my work, which are getting more expensive, and also canvases and acrylic frames are getting expensive.
I use acrylic paint without any water in the frame, the work is quite heavy. So I can’t create the work larger than 116.7 x 91 cm size.
I have 4 pieces in the largest canvas called ‘Human Paradise’, which made the audiences thumbs up on me since kkumteuris look so vibrant and look like us, people living in this contemporary world. They said that kkumteuris are so energetic and interesting; if they look the artwork with the long distance, the movement of kkumteuris is quite strong, but in mid-distance it became relatively calm, and finally in close distance it looks like they are stopped. I’m always grateful as an artist for the audiences.
Message to her audience
People sometimes face difficulties, sadness and under stress because of unwanted situation surrounding them. A life is not consisting of happiness and joyfulness. It might cause illness to not only the individual but also the entire society. But I would like people to find the way of expressing their emotions and stress well, and find the happiness and freedom just like kkumteuri.
Please explore my works in my Instagram @jiyeun_artist
My thoughts
I think it is wonderful to see people following their dreams, and in Hong’s case, her calling. I hope, like her Grandmother Moses, that she continues to make artwork for a very long time. Through writing this article, and understanding the meaning behind her lovely creation, before having seen the art in real life last week, I found that it allowed me to appreciate it more and I have since become quite attached to the colourful and unusual little creatures. They do indeed bring with them a sense happiness and freedom.