My work comes from my past experience as a foreigner in the United States and Europe. I am trying to depict daily humans live, juxtaposed with the shop window mannequins. Through this juxtaposition, I would like to describe the similarity between the lives of human beings and the inanimate mannequins.
But this similarity sometimes twists and turns into an irony; the intrinsic difference between the alive humans and the lifeless mannequins begin to seem interchangeable. This irony is manifested in the world that we live in. Only things that seemingly await humans in dark streets are these mannequins displayed in show windows. Even if these people walk in their own confinements, these mannequins greet them.
Especially with recent series, I try to emphasize interconnection between the world of humans and a world of mannequins and try to say people of this modern society through my paintings “You are loved”. I wanted to let the viewers find peace and delight through my paintings and feel God’s presence strongly.
I am a Boston-based artist and have exhibited paintings in many national galleries. I have previously sold my entire Italy series to a single patron, and my entire Germany series to another collector, among many others who remain interested in my future works. I studied Studio Art at Brandeis University and received MFA from University of New Hampshire.
www.youngsheen.com
"I am emotionally drawn to lights, movement, energy, aura, bright and brilliant colors, flowers and stars.. and also deeply moved by these concepts which are fantasy, enlightenment, happiness, imagination, freedom, the future.. Whenever these moments come into my life, I want to recreate these beautiful feelings and my strong emotions in my paintings. And when I am painting, I am extremely happy. I wish that viewers will see and experience in my paintings the energy, excitement, hopes,dreams and love that I feel when I create my art. I hope it evokes the feeling of " Spring in the air" filled with happiness."
Miae Cho (Website; www.miaecho.com, Instagram; miaechoart )
Devil’s Ivy
- an ordinary, enduring plant.
It is not particularly pretty.
It does not flower.
It grows downward.
It is satisfied with minimal amounts of water.
It births new plants through merely a segment of the original plant.
It embeds new roots when its node touches the ground.
It purifies the air through its heart-shaped leaves.
Everyday life
-Trivial things from my private space accompany me in my daily life.
Bad habits create obstacles, but establish foundations that encourage improvement.
Crowds of people packed in a small house establishes close relationship.
Providing rides for my kids so many times a day offers more time to talk in intimate space within the walls of the car.
Being a poor talker causes small misunderstandings, but doesn’t cause big trouble.
These things I have had for a prolonged period of time became boring, but provide and comfort and familiarity.
In these aspects of my life, the positive potential of each outweighs the negatives.
Small little things compile and create a whole universe. Each day becomes a week, a month, a year. The compilation of these days conceive the present moment of today.
In my work, my old boring sofa became a happy house. The cushion in the corner became a floating cloud in the sky. The circular pattern on my faded curtain became a moon. An entire universe exists in my small private space.The snapshots of the unexpected and repetitive aspects everyday life create a coherent puzzle, despite their seemingly uncorrelated existence. Realistic and surrealistic expression coexists harmoniously. Devil’s Ivy continues to grow regardless of the circumstance it is in, carrying hope and love from every corner of the private space. Like Devil’s Ivy does, I appreciate that I'm still growing in the state (circumstance, situation) I am now.
I create 'mindscape' painting, drawing and mix media works. I am interested in everything that lies at the interface between existence and non-existence, such as endangered species, out-of-production goods, local relics, and lucid dream recourdings. Based on the collected resourves as seeds, I capture narrative image cells which are proliferated and decontextualized via my old habits: lucid dream experiments and imaginations.
In ‘Event Horizon Series’ using mixed media, I focus on visualizing the structure of an unconscious dimension. The idea of this work starts from my hypnagogic imagery that gives me the inspiration of the surface and provides the structure of overlapping dimensions of many worlds. I realize such overlapping geometry and its hyper-surface by extruding paints and making thousands of knots strand by strand. Through this work, it becomes possible to digest an illusion. I am interested in the 'gap' between a tangible object and abstract structural dimensions. Moreover, I put a small sculpture of endangered fauna and flora on the surface of the work to construct a new scene where two events are appearing at the same time; first, non-existing illusions become visible and realistic, and second, pre-existing creatures vanish slowly. Things crossing an event horizon leave a trace, and this work records the traces of things entering and leaving the world.
Ultimately, I think of myself as a landscape painter. I create a certain patchwork by collecting random images from my lucid dreams and make it to be seen as a connected landscape. I am fascinated in “weaving” such natural, but odd, landscapes.
Most of my works are inspired by my spiritual journey. During the last few years, the colors and shapes became simpler and I looked for the themes based on the mundane things around ourselves, like bowls, coffee pots, chairs, aprons, letters, numbers, etc.
The process of making art work leads me to meet myself, others, nature, and the Creator who put things in place with peace and that gives me great joy.
I feel like the motions of making art are the same as the motions of everyday living.
