We recently connected with Jungmin Lee and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jungmin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Recently, I was working on a project named Pacific Rim 16: Re-set. It was a group project collaboration between ArtCenter College of Design and Tama Art University in Japan. The project focuses on spatial design, “finding meaning in urban chaos.” From this project, I was able to meet new people from different majors, backgrounds, and countries. They gave me inspiration from how they think, ideate concepts, and hearing how they connect the meaning of re-set with their experiences. I appreciate this project because it challenges me to go out of my comfort zone of drawing on paper, but supports expanding to draw within the space, revise from group discussion, and translate drawing into 3 dimensions. Our group wanted to design space for ArtCenter students to reset from their academic journey, and to locate our programs on Hillside garden. We want to call it as PLAMA (Planet Ma), inspired by meaning of “in between” of Japanese letter Ma, and to support the healthy relationship between human to human, and human to nature. From this project, I was able to begin learning about Japanese letter, meanings, and cultures, such as footbath and furoshiki bento wrapping, which inspired our programs to share water, fire, and food concepts. I believe the making process was most meaningful, where each person in the group focused on their task where they are interested in, and shared their feedback to develop slowly. For example, I was able to learn curving foams and using model shop tools from working on new tasks. I was able to try making large paintings to install in the space, to depict peoples’ experiences at PLAMA space. I think this project was meaningful to me, where I was not focusing on trying to be perfect, but on trying to experience and learn within the process.
Jungmin, 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 was born in Incheon, South Korea. I came to California in 2017. I use visual languages that are motivated by nature, children, and my memory. 3 messages are staying in my mind. Firstly, I observe to learn who I am, second, I say yes to meet new experiences to grow my possibilities, and third, I follow my heartbeat with instincts.
I am asking “the purpose of what I am making” to myself, and remind me of the attitude for my decisions, image making, and my voice to tell the story. I want my works to reflect the minds of people, and heal their emotions that medicines can not, and bring confidence for dreamers and those who lost their dreams to imagine again.
To achieve these goals, my process is based on honest interpretation and the attempts to remember the lessons of the past memory.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
These days, my mission is not being perfect, but to experience. I think I was trying to follow my original plan, feeling lost from making mistakes, and hearing judgements. I think this moment was negative to charge my creative energy, and the change to the thought was needed. My goal is to try new things and feel within the experience, which helps me to be more free and flexible on the unexpectedness of the creative journey.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I feel most rewarding when someone shares their joy and connects to their emotion from my art. Sometimes, they are experiments and uncertainty when I make them, or coming from my personal memory. It is surprising and magical when people share their connection, and express their feelings as the response to my work, which gives me motivation to continue making.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jungmin-lee.com
- Instagram: @leejungmin1213
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jungmin-lee-5153a4204/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oBcX6V5eEA
Image Credits
Image 2 : Pacific Rim 16, Credit : Rico Kato, Ayaka Kaizu, Seinosuke Kuroda, Jungmin Lee