Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402230003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
An art professor from Wonju, Korea, he has been in Roanoke for two and a half months as part of a professorial exchange program between Roanoke's Virginia Western Community College and its sister college, Sang Ji Junior College in Wonju. An exhibit of 15 works he's completed here, during his first visit to the United States, opened Friday at Virginia Western's Painter Gallery.
``If I want to draw,'' he begins slowly. ``I can express ki and to in my work. If I have a very peaceful situation, I make a very peaceful expression.''
It is difficult to grasp the Oriental philosophy of ki and to, pronounced ``key'' and ``doe.'' But Kim is patient, drawing long puffs on his slender cigarette as he struggles to explain what to him and other Koreans is a common and completely natural concept. He is eager for Americans to understand this, for ki and to are the driving force behind his work and his life.
``All nature have a ki - a life,'' he explains.
This is an intuition, interjects David Curtis, the Virginia Western art professor who returned in October from his three-month visit to Wonju. Curtis has spent the majority of his time hosting Kim in Roanoke. The two bandy American and Korean ideas daily. They have become good friends, and they know each other's thoughts well enough to explain them to those who don't.
Ki, Curtis explains, is the feeling we get from nature. The sun makes us warm inside; an earthquake makes us tremor. It is in Kim's life what the Force was in ``Star Wars.''
``At the moment, there is much political turmoil [in Korea],'' Curtis says. ``Because it is not ideal, his work comes out very tumultuous, too. If it was peaceful, his paintings would be much calmer. He's really painting about what he senses and feels.''
That understood, Kim smiles, satisfied.
``Not deep,'' he says. ``Nature, that is nature.''
During his visit to Roanoke, Kim has had the chance to experience lands far different from Wonju's more fast-developing and crowded landscape. The artist-philosopher and former journalist is particularly taken by the countryside of Craig County. Recently, he and Curtis flew over it in a sail plane. Because he is from a small seaside town, Kim can relate to the feel of the rural area. He even calls himself a ``country boy.''
Kim also has visited Roanoke's museums and galleries. He notes that Roanoke, with its numerous arts organizations, is far more culturally mature than Wonju. At home, he says, the arts community is centered around Seoul.
Kim speaks English, but he does so with effort, so communication in America hasn't been easy. He's been to New York twice, both times with an interpreter. And, Roanokers who meet Kim depend on Curtis to help paraphrase his halting English into smooth sentences.
Kim is undaunted by these obstacles, though. He explains that because he is an artist, he seeks to communicate through his art, where there are no language barriers.
His work is expressionistic, and visitors to the Painter Gallery will be impressed by his dark and muted colors layered thickly onto traditional Korean paper. His paintings are of people he's seen and met in Roanoke. They are combined with photographs of Korean landscapes and cityscapes Kim took before leaving Wonju. This combination of people and places represents a coming together of the two cultures.
``I am in conflicting societies,'' Kim explains, eyes squinted shut again in search of the right words. ``I must express the conflict condition. That is nature, that is harmony.''
Many of the people Kim has painted are figures on the Roanoke City Market - his favorite place in Roanoke. ``I like the Market. There are many ordinary people - I like ordinary people, not special people,'' Kim says.
``Ordinary people usually have a truth in their life.''
by CNB