▲ Jung Mi-rae

At the 2018 Korea Art Festival International Art Fair held in KINTEX early October this year, a work titled <Rest in Fantasy> caught my eye: it was the work of artist Jung Mi-rae who runs her own art therapy studio ‘Boryeon Atelier’. In the work, a young woman with long hair and smile sat in the air floating. 

Jung, who has an art psychotherapist certificate, majored in art. She is making the most of her talent in art not only for creation but also as a tool to cure emotional, mental and psychological wounds. She showed a great interest in the way our psychological state works. 

One day when she was walking on the street, she saw a boy sitting at a bus top. He looked lonely and sad and Jung could not help feeling sympathized. The Sympathy developed into a curiosity on human emotions: sadness, hatred, pain and wound. Theses emotional uproar sometimes leads a man to kill oneself. 

So she brought up an idea to make her art for curing these emotional wounds. This might be the reason that we often see in her works the angels, wings and butterflies embracing a man. “Wings indicate sadness and pain and butterflies comfort” explains Jung. 

Her strong feeling of sympathy on human emotions made her passionate in teaching children and adult alike in her art studio in Ilsan. It is notable that some children seem to depend more on Jung than their parents in certain terms; in other words, her teaching methods are very effective.

What do you say when you are asked what art is about? Some say “It is to make something beautiful” or others say “It is to make us happy with pictures or sculptures” or “It is to comfort troubled souls.” 

And if we give a little more credit to the latter part, art indeed can be a great tool to comfort many troubled souls. It can help them lead life as normal as others who try to keep balance in human relations and social activities. 

“In the past, I tried to express the pain and sadness of people in a way of communication. Now, I give more focus on works that can embrace the wounded heart or comfort their troubled souls. I sense that people find a haven of the harsh reality while concentrating on expressing and creating their own works which are the reflections of their current state of mind.”

Jung has held and participated in a number of exhibitions: Seoul Hangaram Arts Center Museum, Civic Museums of the Municipality of Milan, Kyungin Museum of Fine Art, Gallery Galaxy China and Crossing Gallery New York. She is a member of the Korean Fine Arts Association.

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