▲ IOU-Kim Young-ja

My journey started from vague childhood and is on the road towards unknown days. Foggy memories became clear in the dews twinkling. Walking along the curvy paddy path to school, I saw bright water drops on barley, cosmos buds and frogs jumping by the footsteps. These are the things waiting quietly beyond the memory and blow the breath of vitality into my life. It is the chapter of happiness in my journey. – Artist’s note –

Poetic vitality
Artist Kim is famous for her lyrical sentiment. There is her cherished time, a thrill of first love, a pinky mountain and a yearning for the good old days in childhood in her works while a sense of vitality is hinted from the colors of violet and blue. 

The theme of her art world lays on time, lively and mine. ‘Lively’ is a series work delivering a message of thrill of the first encounter while ‘mine’ is an expression of harmony between water drops and a woman through which the world is born anew. 

One might feel a sense of tenderness, pure, peaceful, splendid, feminine yet strong and dynamic in her works. Sharing a beautiful memory and a journey to find one’s own life is like a gift for everyone. 

In her works, water, circles, water drops and women are a common destiny expressed through abstract and presentational. She also uses reconstruction of formative, experiment and movement of colors in order to deliver harmony and future-oriented power.

Fairytale-like innocence
Kim was born as the first daughter of 4 siblings. She studied at Daejeon Girl’s High School and Gongju National University of Education. She then started her teacher’s career at an elementary school in Mungyeong, moved to Pyeongtaek and settled down in Gongju. 

She collected her inspiration from changing of seasons in nature adding her sentiment when creating her works. She loves children and enjoys encouraging their creative mind. And this led her to strengthen her interest in art. 

She practiced drawing after school from 7 to 11pm, met the children at school the next day and regained the energy to push her passion on. Children became flowers and women one by one in her woks as time went by and they became like fairytales; wild flowers, wild herbs, little birds and warm hearts towards weak animals. 

As a successful teacher and a future-oriented artist
Kim likes her nickname ‘IOU’ meaning ‘little feather’. It gets blown away easily but it has such power of embracing the harsh world with benevolence. Kim’s day starts and ends with the passion in paintings, poems and fairytales. 

For the last 21 years, she shifted from realistic landscape to storytelling to representational to abstract alongside her 37 years of career as a successful teacher. Also, in October, 2018, she published her first fairytale book <Nyeom Nyeom-i>. 

As for now, she is using yellow over blue and violet to strengthen her message of dynamism under the new theme ‘division and lack’. She has held numerous solo, group and invitational exhibitions home and abroad and won a number of prizes. The year 2019 will the year of her new creative zeal and chanllenge.

▲ Lively 50.0 ×50.0cm oil on canvas 2019, 이우김영자