Myong Hee Kim
Myong Hee Kim is an artist
and the creator of The Peace Mask Project
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Reflections |
Photo Notes |
Stream of Life
I find myself floating in a stream of life,
passing and being passed by many others
wearing various clothes, speaking various languages.
We fill each other's cups while sharing moments from our lives.
As we move along the stream,
the bright light of day dances across the water,
followed by a soft glow from the moon.
Calm follows the storms.
Life is continually searching for meaning.
My act of painting is merely a matter of dipping my brush
into the constantly flowing waters of the stream,
compiling a journal of what I feel.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The words that appear above were written
for my first exhibition,
entitled "The Stream of Life," held in Kyoto in 1985.
Since then, nineteen years have quicky passed by.
Figurative paintings developed into abstracts.
Abstracts were transformed into monoprints.
And then, the painting was put aside for the making of Life Masks.
The Life Masks led to "Japan-Korea Life Mask 2002,"
a three year project that took me to twenty-seven communities in Korea and Japan.
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And now, at the beginning of The Peace Mask Project, I am finding
the time to pick up my brush again and dip it once more into the stream.
I am grateful that this long journey has taken me
to many distant places to meet and work with so many wonderful people.
Sometimes I find the stream running rapidly
and I'm not sure whether it will meet a sharp bend or cascade over rocks.
At other times, it becomes quite gentle,
taking me past fields of flowers bordered by towering trees.
I know that eventually the stream will gradually begin to widen
and calmly draw me towards the waiting ocean.
Until I reach that final destination,
I hope to continue compiling a record of my lifetime journey
through the making of Peace Masks and
the creation of new paintings.
I am most happy to share these humble efforts with you.
- Myong Hee Kim, Kyoto, June 2004