We recently connected with Soo Yung and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Soo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
A lot of people ask me if I think it is worth paying off the hefty amount of student loans to go to school for painting since there are many successful self taught artists. For me personally, the best investment I have made for myself was going to art school. The inspirations for my paintings with rice developed during my senior year as I was taking a class for non traditional mediums. I was also blessed to have met a group of highly competitive and passionate painters as peers as we challenged and inspired one another during each critique session. Skills can be developed with practice but meeting the right group of peers and professors who help develop your artistic color and practice is priceless.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a 1.5 generation Korean American who immigrated to the United States in 1996 with my family. Like most immigrant families looking for a better future, my parents probably secretly wished I would have become a doctor or a lawyer. Instead I chose the opposite career as an artist. Becoming an artist was not actually something I dreamed of from childhood. Growing up, I wanted to become an art teacher or art therapist until I fell in love with my artistic practice and the thrill of the rush of ideas and inspirations.
With busy parents working multiple jobs, my sister and I spent most of our time with our grandparents who fought and lived through the Korean War (1950-1953). Korea was not a wealthy country during the war and was still a dynasty until 1910. Leftovers and wasting food was something they did not tolerate. My grandmother made sure we ate every single grain of rice out of our rice bowls. This specific table manner drilled into us was my muse for using rice as a medium. I have a very specific rule for myself when I am working with this medium. The rule I obsess over is to place each grain of rice individually. This is a way for me to reserve a gesture of respect to the times my grandparents lived through with the scarcity of food. Individually placing the grains on the surface eventually developed into a dialog and a journey of process and discovery. What I love about expressing myself through this medium is the fact that rice is a pantry staple cross culturally. It is something many of us can relate to. The use of this medium also implies the economic abundance we live in.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the privilege of being able to create something that can be shared with others to be enjoyed. My paintings involve a very specific and intense process of roasting the rice grains for multiple hours to create different hues and individually placing each grain with intention. Because of the process that goes into my paintings, I feel like each painting embodies a part of me. I want to share my joy with others. I am the most overjoyed when people share with me the feelings they get when they see my paintings and it is the same feeling I had when creating the work. It makes me feel like I had the chance to really connect with the viewer and share a dialog that can’t be expressed through just words.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As an emerging artist the most difficult thing for me was finding a good balance between my artistic practice as well as holding down a job to earn money for my living expenses. Finding a freelancing job was my best solution to balance the two careers. The pandemic was a difficult time as an artist because I had no source of income. I applied for artists relief funds and grants which kept me afloat and continued to spend more hours in developing my work and exploring the medium of rice. 2 years into the pandemic I was inspired to add color and vibrancy into my work to manifest life returning to normal. I feel like if I had stopped creating during the pandemic I would not be where I am as an artist today. The two years cooped up inside my studio has really helped me to develop my artistic practice and have opened up many doors for me.
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