We recently connected with Nam Kim and have shared our conversation below.

Nam, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I majored in advertising design, a track of Graphic design in Tokyo Design Academy in Harajuku, Tokyo. After graduation in 2009, I went back to Korea because I received a job offer as a designer creating advertisements in newspapers and magazines. I worked for ADCK, which is a design company in Korea, for two years. I created a variety of designs for colleges, medicines, and apartments and often worked overtime to finish projects through the weekend. Working under a lot of work-related stress resulted me to become seriously sick. The stress at work caused me to quit the job in 2011. Even as a designer who worked with creativity, I realized that there wasn’t satisfaction in this career for me. So, I decided to go to America to re-study a new subject that I was actually interested in and eager to draw from a personal perspective. I was finally able to pursue my dream as an artist starting at the age 30.

Nam, 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 am a painter, muralist, and designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from South Korea, I love trying new things and experiencing different cultures. I earned my AA in graphic design from Tokyo Design Academy, Japan in 2009. Since 2016, I have lived and worked in Atlanta, where I earned my BFA in painting from The Savannah College of Art and Design.

I paint various subjects based on the relationships in our society. I focus on endangered animals, which was a big concern during an isolated patterned life since Covid-19. I experienced joy and sorrow from documentaries and felt the similarities to our lives. As social animals, we can lead to isolation and death when we cannot do social activities. The lost penguin can be me spending every day in isolation or viewers. I explore painting through the top view, simplified shapes, and color range seen above. My new penguin series has the power to make people feel better with brightness and cuteness.

I am also interested in the relationships between people. A self-professed introvert, I strive to overcome this trait through experiences in new environments, portraying the difficulty in my paintings. My work represents the reality that is created from the connections people form out of necessity. It is my belief that people familiarize themselves with this deception from a young age through role-playing, like with paper dolls. my work reflects this level of illusion in our society. Recently, I explore painting through different brush stroke techniques and simplified subjects and color. I love painting on cardboard due to the idea inspired by the paper dolls of my youth.

I hope my work will be a medium that will give people stability. It is my sincere belief that every child should be given a chance to reach their full potential, and my ultimate goal is to provide free classes to children in my own studio one day.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

My artistic goal is to feature my material in the form of a mural at some point in the future. I know painting a large-scale mural is not easy, so I initially started painting murals as an assistant. It’s been three years, and the three years have been a great opportunity to learn valuable techniques that can only be learned by doing.

Prior to this experience, I believed my drawing was already at a high level, but I didn’t do as well as I thought at the actual site. There were a lot of difficulties, such as the immense scale, the condition of the various wall surfaces, as well as the amount of paint that was needed, just to name a few. I remember my first day when it took an hour just to mix and make paint colors.

However, I have improved in handling a single project on my own. Since the summer of 2020, I have completed over fifty murals so far. Mural paintings have the power to bring unexpected pleasure to a large number of diverse people. Thus, the most rewarding moments are when I communicate with people as they pass by the murals. Even people who were not interested in art approached me first and asked questions about my paintings and myself. Additionally, nearly everyone appreciated my projects in a rewarding way. Between receiving such positive feedback and lovely compliments, I gained much more confidence and was inspired so much at the same time. These are the most rewarding experiences for me when expressing creative works on murals.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The difficulty for me usually comes from the difference in language. Adapting to a new country and learning a new language is difficult as English is my third language. My second language is Japanese, and I was able to improve as much as I tried when I was 23. However, I came to America at the age of 30, and despite trying hard to improve my English skills, English was difficult to improve compared to Japanese.

When an international student enters college, he or she needs a TOEFL score. But my TOEFL score was lower than the standard for many colleges. There were many times when I was disappointed in myself, and as time went by, I lost confidence. However, no matter how long it took, I didn’t give up due to my passion for art.

Finally, I was able to enter SCAD, which offers ESL courses for International students. Taking painting classes was a lot of fun, but liberal arts classes like art history were difficult for me. I wanted to give up repeatedly since I had to do many assignments that included a large amount of reading and writing. There were numerous days when I had to stay up all night long. Compared to my friends, I would estimate that I spent three times as much time finishing the assignments on time.

As a result, I earned my BFA degree in 2020. Although I have never given up, I still struggle with language issues. For example, I still worry about making mistakes before even saying anything. However, I believe that if I continue, I will improve even though my pace is slow. I do everything with this mindset. For me, resilience is endurance with a positive mind.

Contact Info:

• Website: namkimart.com
• Instagram: namkim_art
• Other: https://www.koreanartist.com/en/search/result/artworks/kim%20nam : available to purchase my work and other Korean artists’ artwork