We recently connected with TOLL LEE and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, TOLL thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
For me, creation is a part of life, it activities relieve stress and sometimes cause stress..
Since I have not gone through puberty, I decided to think of this process as a ‘process of finding myself’. It is a time to learn about myself.
I thought that creative activities are important for making ideas into reality, but I also needed the strength and self-esteem to endure time alone.
Creating myself is a great happiness to me.
I gradually grew, but I could not maintain a comfortable financial status by selling my works. Since creating works costs money, I had no choice but to think about the financial aspect.
After graduating from university, I worked at a trading company for a month, but I was not satisfied, and I quit because I only thought about leaving work early and drawing.
How am I now after 14 years as an artist?
I always worry a lot about the cost of materials and it is still difficult.
But, I may be able to gain financial freedom if I have a regular job, but I don’t think I can easily use the word ‘happiness’.
TOLL, 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 draw animals and insert them into stories where I personify them. Because I think animals do not hide their inner feelings like people, but rather reveal them transparently. I draw mostly cats because I think they are similar to people and the white cat in the drawing represents my childhood.
They say that today we are younger than tomorrow. That’s why I want to share my childhood with my pets (Chunjang and Doenjang) and represent my personal growth.
My works on wine boxes are born with the intention of carefully guarding my thoughts and giving a new life to disused objects.
I expand my thoughts on the canvas.
I think the message I want to convey can be expressed more strongly because it is shown in three dimensions.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I create my works by putting my thoughts into books, movies, and people’s stories.
The first one I read when I was 20 was ‘Die Geschichte des Herrn Sommer’ by Patrick Suskind. I was deeply immersed in the book and learned about agony, loneliness, and longing.
Since then, I have tried to re-express the contents of movies and books as an observer.
Conversations with friends, news, etc. also have a big influence on me.
I think a lot about colors, so I collect a lot of colors. I also find the process of colors that I used to think were not pretty blending together through ratio, brightness, and saturation fascinating.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
In the early days of my career as an artist, I asked people who were looking at my paintings:
“What did you think of my work?”
I thought it was important for me to share various stories, but in fact, explaining my work wasn’t that important.
Because creating is my job, and enjoying it is the viewer’s job.
Although I share the same thoughts, it’s nice to hear other thoughts.
And sometimes, I get messages from people saying that I helped them break free from the shackles of their own stifling thoughts. I’m happy because I think I expressed what I wanted to convey well.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lee_toll
Image Credits
Artist LEE TOLL (Republic of Korea)