Haelyn Y
My first significant exposure to art was in a water painting class in 1st-grade. My art teacher was impressed with my expressive use of color and lines and recommended my parents support a path in art.
Art is a profession of privilege in Korea so my parents dismissed the suggestion. I never gave it much thought to pursue art as a profession but always enjoyed self-teaching and sketching on my own as an escape from the stressful academic life of Korean society.
While finishing up my Bachelor of Science in Geology, I met my husband and joined him to start a new life in the United States. To help me adjust to American life, I enrolled in some ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at a nearby community college in Honolulu, HI. It was here that I experienced my first formal art training by enrolling in an introduction to drawing class.
From the very first day of class, I felt an ignition of energy and passion that I realized I had suppressed all my life. All I was able to think about was how I could better express the lines and tone of a figure. My instructor was in disbelief that I had never had any formal training and was excited to guide me through the Atelier program (classical realism) at the college.
Just as many of us cannot forget our first love, I think my focus on the human subject stems from my first drawing class where I fell in love with drawing human figures.
I work primarily in oils, acrylic, and charcoal. I originally trained in the traditional way so my works involve lots of chiaroscuro and glazing. At the same time, I often employ bold colors and impasto in an expressionistic manner. In other words, I like to build up in the traditional way but also like to sculpt in the opposite way.
As a scientist, I constantly search for the answer to what I witness in the moment. I quickly realize that the moment I try to capture no longer exists. The moment I transfer what I see to a canvas, it’s already changed by my emotional and logical filtering system.
Education
Portland Community College, Portland, OR 2016
Atelier Program - Kāne‘ohe, HI 2007
Kapiolani Community College - Honolulu, HI 2006
Bachelor of Science - Kyunghee University, Seoul Korea 1997
Artistic journey, or the philosophy/inspirations for my work
Art is one of the main means of expressing my inner thoughts and feelings. It is an outlet that is not bound by language or culture, which I find liberating and infinitely rewarding.
I explore issues related to memory and feeling through the process of painting. My work often reflects a deep fascination with memory and interpretation of shapes and forms, representing my own attempt to examine the dichotomy between the present and the past.
In my view, memories have their own lives - some remain still while some change because we, who do the recalling, change. So, my works are representations of them, expressed wholly and realistically or in fragments and abstractly.
Long story short, my inspirations come from all the seances I ever experienced. It could be music or simple sounds or the tastes or smells or textures from my own. I would like my art to bring back people’s sense from their own memory/moment. To achieve it, I’ve been pushing the boundary of what I can use and what I cannot with my paintings/drawings.
Key Shows and Collections which have included your work
Rental Sales Gallery Portland Art Museum
SAACHI ART online gallery
Rain Spark gallery
Solo Exhibitions
SCHH Art in Oregon, May 21-Jul 9 2022
Dee Denton Gallery 2018
Publications
Spotlight Magazine 2019
