Korean Dynasty

pictured above from the left: C. Erdal, Melissa Burgess, Tom Papa, Amie Oliver,
Kathryn Henry-Choisser and Bong Soo Lee. In front center - our fearless leader HeeJa Sung.

I ran across this photo today nestled in the Oliver/Kollatz archive. It was a beautiful afternoon in South Korea in February of 2002. Artifacts were on view in the mound behind us. Charming tourist traps were out front for Americans to fall into. We were riding a wave of new friends and bobbing under when the seas were too rough or the tourists too flashy. Our Papason (the artist Bong Soo Lee, a native of Korea who speaks no English but has proven to be the most patient man I've ever met) is dressed in the western style sport coat and slacks and no, it isn't a rental like ours. He's probably wondering why he's in the photo next to a bunch of goofy Americans.

Mutual goofiness is what I really, really love discovering in a new terrain. On the way back to Daegu that night Bong Soo played a special CD for us in his van. It consisted of numerous renditions of the song Danny Boy. All styles and orchestrations. I dunno if the vocalists are all famous in the east but those of us from the west were amused, charmed and flabbergasted to hear such a collection of recordings while riding through the Korean night. Does the song have special significance here? Do Koreans think the song has special significance for all of us? Or, is it meant to be a joke and they are waiting for us to laugh? The unsolved mysteries of traveling in a foreign land with gracious hosts and guests who each speak different tongues are endless.

There is a collection of artwork by Virginians on view in Korea at the moment. It has traveled from Daegu to Seoul to Chine and is now somewhere in between. I am very happy to have work included in the show and just wish I could be traveling with it. If you recognize any of the artists in the photo above you have very good facial recognition. We were jetlagged, younger and, well, the photo is a little fuzzy like us. We were the first group of artists to be part of Artificum of Humanitas. Heeja invited us to participate in this cultural exchange to celebrate the 2oth anniversary of a similar collective she was part of in Daegu. It was challenging and incredible. I hope to be able to fly over again one day since I loved the food, the people, the landscape, the culture... I could go on and on... and the Korean paper was beautiful and very cheap!

Past, present, future

I've been digging through the digital archive and discovered a trove of images from 2002. We moved that year and during our first month in a different home I traveled to Korea with a group of Richmond artists. It was quite an adventure. I loved the food, the culture, the land... the paper! If I had the resources I would spend half my time working and exploring overseas the other half of my time home with the H. man.