Hello people (my dear audience), this is my first time writing an artist statement. Actually, this is my first time writing something on a webpage. I have no clue what to write in this “statement”, so I decided to write some sort of statement; story of me—becoming an artist. I still have hard time communicating in English, so pardon me. I believe I am more a designer than an artist. I came to this school to study Product Design. I am going to study/design furniture. If this statement must be about my artwork,  then I will present some of the things I have done so far.
           
Since I came to this “free country” many years ago, I realized I could study whatever I want to. Back in my old country, everything was strictly controlled by one’s parents and society.  I followed everything that was asked and (almost) never did something freely. Well, what I am trying to say is that my parents, (many Korean parents) believe that becoming an artist was not acceptable. Unless the children are deeply talented in arts, parents avoided any chance of allowing their children to become artists.

When I came to Canada approximately seven years ago, I was able to study or get interested in arts and music right away. Even though I was not talented, I did my work; tried my best. I started with crafts, woodworking and drawings.

In my design realm, I am into woodworking and furniture. In my previous years, I have created a folding chair made out of maple, and a gumball machine. My chair is pretty weak now, however my prize-winning gumball machine is still fascinating. The only bad thing about my gumball machine is that I must have regular sized gumballs. It isn’t very big, but it is still heavy and a burden. After I created it, I still have no idea why I made it. I mean, who needs a gumball machine?? You can just eat it from a bucket full of gumballs. Moreover, my chair is weak because one time I tried to make 3 people sit on top of each other and the dowels got very weak.

Other than designs, I also like to make art. Since I am not talented in photography or drawings, I prefer to work with anything that is 3-D. Usually I “harass” toys, dolls, junk, or anything that can be used and recycled. One of my works, titled, “50 pains”, is a collection of dolls, toys, crafts, and recyclables—and made a giant hanger of pain.