We recently connected with Sangho Han and have shared our conversation below.

Sangho, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I met a friend when I was 9. I spent a lot of time with him, and he moved to a different neighborhood. When I was in my first year of middle school, he came back to the area where I lived, and he was obsessed with drawing. I still remember vividly – he was drawing a samurai character on A4 paper in front of me – I copied his drawing for a while, and I hung around with him, drawing and talking, and then I followed him to the art academy he went to.

The biggest turning point was when I followed my friend to draw cartoon charecter during my teenage years and going to the art academy. I spent a lot of time with him and was greatly influenced by him.

I went to the art academy to draw, and from then until I was in my mid-20s, I drew, and during that time, I met so many people, fell in love, and got married. All the reasons and opportunities for me to draw and think about things now were provided in the art academy.

The reason I talk about my personal love story is to explain how my thoughts and ideas about art began to expand explosively after I met my wife. During the process of dating and marrying my wife and moving to America, my art grew up very fast and also fell apart irreversibly. This whole process is to me a very literary and imaginative realm, and on the other hand, it feels like a panoramic movie, like time has passed.

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?

As I said in the first question, I went to an art academy with a friend when I was young, and met many kinds of people, and among them, I met my current wife. The reason I talk about my wife again is because she is the companion who leads my life and the person who inspires and motivates all my art. She is everything to me. I am not trying to tell a romantic story or pretend to be a ‘good’ husband, but the beginning and end of my paintings and all the processes go through her.

This is theoretically deeply related to Pierre Bonnard’s intimism, and this intimism is directly connected to Howard Hodgkin’s artwork and ideology. A deep relationship with a certain person and looking at life through that relationship sometimes brings tremendous -traumatic experience and trials to humans, but it also leaves them with insights and deep wisdom that are not easily obtained.

Someone jokingly says that nothing is as difficult as married life. When I was young, I drew cartoons with a friend, and then I went to an art school, where I met many people, and later, while working as teacher at the art academy, I got to know my wife. In the process of getting to know my wife—and sharing artistic and human experiences with her—I tried to apply the influence of Abstract Expressionist art and contemporary visual language with my visual experience, through repeated attempts and methodological investigation, I tried to make it take on visual meaning, and to allow viewers to experience the painting that only I can create.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Painting, at least for me, means covering one eye—I’ve talked to a lot of people about this recently, and it’s probably a very controversial topic for some, and for others it’s something that aspiring artists in their pre-mature stages would say. And I can’t disagree with that right now.

As with everything in life, painting involves a series of things that also including a lot of misery, or giving up your own authority. It’s also about giving up opportunities for growth as a human being, willingly accepting the process of constantly going down and becoming miserable—this is completely contrary to the way the world works, and only a person who can go through this without a hitch can be qualified as an artist.

if i’m using metaphorical sentence, Only a person who can accept a million bombs falling on him as if he were picking up a newspaper next to his house–very calmly– can understand the meaning of the pictures he draws, realize what he’s doing now, pursue his vision, and realize that his painting is a commitment to the life he lives.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

There is no need to think of it as a distinction – non-creative people and creative people are not separate – they have their own struggles, and being creative means privilege.

The more I draw, the more I experience like I am committing a sin as I maintain this life – make painting – learning to draw – holding an exhibition, etc., all of these things that people who cannot draw, cannot hold an exhibition, and cannot live in a society where people in art, they cannot grasp those things through their entire life.

Those who have privilege must always be prepared to accept the things that can happen because of that privilege – drawing is a privilege – it is a benefit that someone has given them, whether psychologically or socially, and for those who do not, it is always a ‘motivation to experience various thoughts and emotions’, and from someone’s perspective, it becomes a cause to make the world chaotic. I don’t want to talk too complicatedly, but I am saying that those who enjoy this privilege need to understand and accept those who do not.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sanghohanart.com
• Instagram: sanghohanart