Artist’s Statement

In the spirit of Surrealist automatism, I begin by creating spontaneous marks on paper or canvas; I often just brush over, splatter, and/or spill water-based pigments on it. Deliberations follow such accidents as I wait to observe and refine images, with which I compose visual narratives. The stories that appear, while deeply personal, are meant to be shared, more universally relatable.
 
Replaying and reshuffling familiar characters from some of the well-known children’s stories such as Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid as proxy figures, especially those aspiring to become more completely, perfectly, human, I explore the underbelly of human psychology often shaped by traumas, those emotional turbulences and gradational complexities lurking “underneath it all.” As I dramatize the psychological fragility, resignation, resistance, and triumph in visual forms, I recompose some of those pieces of my life experiences, through which I hope to reach self-discovery, healing, and growth.

Kyujin Lee