Kim is the youngest son of 7 brothers and sisters of a struggling family in a mountain village of Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province. All other siblings left home and Kim lived with his mother even after his marriage.

▲ Artist Kim Hwan-go

His mother is now well over 90 but Kim is still a friend of her whom she can share a story or two of olden days with. His mother picked up even a branch of a tree on her way back home as the time was harsh for ordinaries to get by. Naturally, Kim grew up with excellent skills of sickling and of A-frame carrying. Now too old to remember things in detail, the mother does not know what his youngest son does but asks him whether he is ok with food and clothes. Kim says to her mother he is drawing her then she says to him why me. It makes Kim sad.

Kim likes travel and observing nature with keen eye. His tree paintings partly come from this observation. Sometimes he laughs and other times he cries when painting. Or he goes down the bunker to gaze his tree paintings for a long time. He recently had a solo exhibition in Insa-dong, Seoul. Many came to see his tree paintings and encouraged him. It took him to the time where he traveled far and wide with a sketchbook at hand. Many things happened during the course but he stuck to what he wanted to do and love to do and finished the solo exhibition without any regret. He just wants to thank his wife who has always been supportive. She is like the trees in his paintings. The trees that embrace him always.