Today we’d like to introduce you to Seonna Hong.
Hi Seonna, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My art practice is both in the fine art and commercial art world. I’m lucky to be able to show my personal work in galleries around the world and work in production as a Visual Development artist in Feature and Television animation too.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
More than measuring whether the road has been bumpy or smooth, I’d say it was a road I was laying bricks down for as I was walking down it. I feel extremely fortunate that I make my living as an artist now… something I dreamed of as a kid, but also could never have imagined. I had heard all my life it would be a struggle to find work as an artist, so that fear/ motivation (depending on how you look at it) opened my mind up to taking any art or art-adjacent opportunities that came my way, like teaching art to kids, working in galleries, art supply stores, doing commissions and commercial illustrations and eventually painting backgrounds for cartoons and then animated features. All the while, I was also showing my personal work wherever I could… in coffee shops at first, then group shows, and eventually solo shows around the world.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work has evolved over the years from illustrative (and heavily influenced by my time in animation) to more abstract. Figures, usually girls and women, have always been the narrators, but the landscapes they’ve traversed have changed and continue to change. I guess I’ve always used my paintings as a journal of sorts, working out ideas, fear, grief, hope, and am always surprised that something that feels so personal is actually more universal than I realized. I’m especially touched when I hear someone else’s story or interpretation of one of my works and that something in my expression of a personal experience is meaningful to them in their own way. And a proud moment in my animation career? Winning an Emmy for Production Design in Background Painting was pretty epic!
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Gah! So many people deserve credit. My high school art teacher, Mr. Ray Leal, who saw something in me and guided me toward pursuing art in college AND helped me figure out a way to pay for it by entering me into every high school art contest he could. I was able to pay for my first year of school off a lot of community and mall contests! I’m grateful to everyone who ever gave me a job, an opportunity to make something, a chance to show. I think of people like Bob Self from Baby Tattoo Books (rest in peace), who approached me about making a book, which set the course for a show that eventually turned into a book that led to my first solo show in New York with Oliver Kamm who introduced my work to Takashi Murakami who then hosted a solo show for e in Tokyo. This is that “laying the bricks as I’m walking down the path” scenario I mentioned earlier. And there are lots of them. I’m grateful to the gallery that has represents me now, Hashimoto Contemporary, who not only support my work but support me as a person and friend. I’m so inspired by fellow artists in every field as everything goes into the soup of my brain. And, of course, who would I be without my daughter Tigerlily, who was my model in a lot of paintings and through motherhood, made me disciplined as an artist, making work not when inspiration struck but when the opportunity to presented itself.
Contact Info:
- Website: seonnahong.com
- Instagram: @seonnahong
Image Credits
Scott Leahy
