Today we’d like to introduce you to Ara Ko

Hi Ara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

I was born in a small town in Korea. Both my parents were teachers, and my mother, who majored in art, ran an art academy. Thanks to this, I became accustomed to drawing from a young age and naturally entered an art middle school and an art high school.

During my time at these schools, I was a scholarship student every year, but I dropped out of high school to take time to reflect on my life’s purpose and the right path. I was given a year before entering art college, but I could only find 40% of the answers I was looking for. After entering university and pursuing a master’s degree in painting in the United States, I feel that I have found about 90% of the answers to purpose, and reasons for my life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

No. It has been far from easy. After leaving high school and engaging in meditation, I experienced bipolar disorder, which led me to drop out of university as well.

When I decided to leave high school to find my path, I had two main reasons. First, I was academically successful and not worried about getting into college. Second, I felt I had grasped the basics of art too
quickly due to my early art education, and I wanted to start anew from scratch. I felt like it was a weakness of mine that I could so easily recognize and draw the pictures people liked.

I asked myself why I am living, what it means to live correctly, and what should be the highest priority in life. The answer I received was that being fully present in the moment is the best I can do. When I get too far ahead or fall behind in life, what I can do is to be truly diligent, and this diligence brings about morally good results. Valuing and appreciating the work of others, giving praise, and using that as a foundation to live even more earnestly is the attitude I took while drawing.

During a five-year break from painting, my skills in my 20s lagged behind those of my friends, unlike when I was a teenager. However, I developed the courage to draw what I wanted to. I also began to see life from a longer perspective.
I was finally able to grow at my own pace and accept it wholeheartedly.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I create forms that represent imagined nature and living beings by exploring the relationship between light and form. These forms, drawn with charcoal, stand out against a black canvas background, encapsulating the essence and beauty of nature’s fundamental elements of birth. Reflecting on these elements is akin to recognizing beauty within the universal ordinary. Through art, I have realized that it is possible to capture the refined simplicity that nature offers, which we can’t replicate through technology. This represents the unattainable beauty of nature, suggesting that art, like nature, is more about appreciation than possession.

Moreover, I primarily focus on my subconscious while painting. This means I create intuitively and explore the hidden world of nature. It is directly related to my insights and interactions with intangible entities. By intangible entities, I don’t mean ghosts, but the sounds of nature. I enjoy interpreting my subconscious connections to it. Even as a grown woman, I still believe that when I do a morally good deed, the universe responds to me with a gentle breeze.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?

I think this is a really good question because reflecting on the value of the journey I’ve undertaken in life is directly connected to why I paint. As I mentioned before, my journey was about finding my true self, beyond merely learning techniques for painting. This aspect is still difficult to find in institutional education, so I had to voluntarily isolate myself from society to some extent. This made me lonely, hurt, and filled with contemplation. However, my paintings are increasingly imbued with a mysterious force that even I cannot fully understand, and I have gained a greater ability to converse with nature. Perhaps this is nature’s response to my decision to embrace the risks of uncovering the mysteries of naturalness, the existence of nature, and entities beyond myself, and how these are intrinsically connected to my inner self and the secrets of my being.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arakostudio.com
• Instagram: www.instragram.com/arako_mono