We recently connected with Herry Koo and have shared our conversation below.

Herry, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

Since I was young, I liked to make various things with my hands. I gave these things to my family and friends. Based on this, my family knew that I was a crafty person. One day my sister showed me a handmade bookmark with a colorful name cutout. She said “I think you can make something like that too”. After that, I successfully remade that bookmark and made it look very nice and clean. Around the age of 15, I started to sell these bookmarks to my friends and other high school students. I came up with more designs and more products over the years to keep the business running.

I don’t remember how I felt at that time, although I was grateful that I could earn some money. My work was my companion at that time in my life and helped me find a way to feed and support myself from a young age.

Herry, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a multimedia artist and I focus on pointillism drawings and forms. I used to draw tribal patterns when I was young and then stopped drawing for many years. In 2019, I started drawing regularly again. I stippled a lot in the beginning and then later incorporated the tribal patterns. After drawing for years at home, I had the urge to get a separate studio so I could connect with the artist community.

Pointillism drawing as a practice takes a lot of time. I’m proud that I can keep a record of my time spent drawing. The idea came after I visited many artist studios. I noticed from conversations with other artists that some of them don’t remember how much time they spend on their artwork. Oftentimes people would even ask me where all the time went?  From there, I decided to log my hours when drawing. This practice helps me price my art once a piece is finished as well. I notice that viewers find another layer in my work when paired with a record of passing time. The look of the final artwork is one thing, but there’s another part that the viewers deserve to see as well. The process itself, like the sketches, the hours etc are all extensions of the final piece. I am trying to teleport the viewer into my space and process alongside me during these logged hours. 

My artwork is wearable as well. When trying to engage an audience during open studios, I felt awkward at first but then tried to find a way to make my work more interactive and playful for the guests. So I turned my head drawings into masks and offered them to play with so people could tag each other in fun photos.  

Besides that, pottery is playing a new role in my life at the moment. I never thought that I would get into pottery, but my studio is next to a pottery school. I walk by everyday and am inspired and curious about how I can translate my drawings into pottery. I’ve been working with clay and am loving it as another extension of my practice.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was training to be a tattoo artist in the beginning of 2020 and then the pandemic hit. During that time, human interaction was almost nonexistent and I spent a lot of time practicing on fake tattoo skin at home. In the beginning, my hand was very stiff when I used a tattoo machine. I realized that I might need to build muscle memory first by practicing 10000 hours. I started drawing circles on paper while stippling a million dots to mimic how the tattoo machine worked. I found that this method was very meditative and therapeutic and just what I needed in a time of so much uncertainty. Eventually, I decided to move on from becoming a tattoo artist but I kept the stippling practice and the rest is history.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes, there is a particular book that I was moved by when I read it. I told myself that I wanted to apply what I learned from it to my own practice. The book is called “The Gift by Magaret Atwood. It’s a compilation of many stories of giving back. In 2024 I auctioned my drawing during the Greenpoint Open Studios and I donated 100% profit to a non profit organization. I plan to continue this practice in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://youngpolypus.com
• Instagram: youngpolypus

Image Credits

The picture with 3 people was taken by photographer Reiko Yoo Yanagi.