Today we’d like to introduce you to Yeon Soo Kim.
Yeon Soo, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, I moved to the state when I was 12 years old. I was just an average girl who followed just because my parents told me we are now moving to California.
Like many artists, art has always been part of my life since my childhood. Although many people, including my family, assumed that I want to become an artist, I actually had never thought of becoming a professional artist until my junior year in high school. I liked drawing because, through creating art, I have always expressed my thoughts. Drawing was always just something I did as a part of my daily life, and I did not recognize this as my special interest. I saw many of my friends who had great talent for art but did not apply for art colleges, and I thought, how can I apply for an art school when they do not. I was wrong. Art was not about how good I was, and I realized this through my high school art teacher.
On the first day of my junior year, I discovered the AP Art Studio class. I didn’t think I was interested but just followed my friend into the classroom to meet the instructor. Paintings and drawings filled an entire wall. Then I thought maybe I’ll like this class. I enrolled and my first assignment was to develop a self-portrait. I’d never received any formal art instruction, but I’d always drawn small sketches; this was the first piece I’d ever done on large Bristol paper, using unfamiliar media. When my instructor saw the portrait, he laughed and remarked, “You really like art, don’t you?” With these six words, this art teacher changed my direction and changed my life. I realized that I should do what I like to do, not necessarily what I am good at. I knew I had only about six months to develop a formal portfolio, but fortunately, my parents were happy and very supportive about my decision, and this is how I got to be here now in Art Center College of Design, studying Illustration, Entertainment Arts program. It was crazy to think how my life changed in such a short time, but I have never regretted my decision.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am currently focusing on illustration and visual development. I am still exploring many other different ways and career paths, but I try to focus on delivering clear images and clear narrative when I create my works. I used to do more realistic and academic drawings, but as I learn design principles and theories, I now emphasize relationships between simple shapes and how they can form more clear image. As in terms of narrative, I try to emphasize the mood of the environment or the expression of the character through my color choice and expressions of the character.
I focus on creating a clear and definite image because I do not like confusing the people who sees my works. I feel like the work that I create are more about my characters’ relationships and more about their moments, so I want to make them straight to the point in order to avoid wrong interpretation.
I hope people can get my message right away when they see my image. I want people to clearly see what moment, what emotion and what mood I am proposing in my work.
How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
To me, being successful is to be able to keep up with things I want to do without losing any interest. If I keep passionate about what I want to do, I will keep going forward and forward until I get to the end of whatever journey I set up.
I think passion and continuous curiosity help me to keep thinking and come out with new ideas. As an artist, we need to keep our ideas flow, and to me, curiosity helps this. When I become curious about something, I need to research it and learn it thoroughly not only in art but also in my life. For my interest, I learned multiple musical instruments like the violin, piano and electric guitar, and I also was involved in many sports team: cross country, Korean martial art, and horseback riding. I also like traveling to different countries. These experiences gave lots of stories to me, and they help me creating stories.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
To me, just viewing my artworks and if my work made people visually pleasing and convincing, that would be great support and motivation. You can find my work on my website, www.soooookim.com, or my instagram page, www.instagram.com/soooookim_/ (@soooookim_).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.soooookim.com/
- Phone: 8058078344
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soooookim_/
Image Credit:
Yeon Soo Kim
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