54 x 24 x 20 in

Installation, mixed media

From a distance, the scene looks harmonious, peaceful, and playful. However, from up close, there is tension, conflict, and some of the figures are inflicting pain on each other.

To me, this is the world: we get hurt from people and we find hope and comfort from people as well. This is the beauty of the world.

The first images that came to my mind when I thought about love were 'mother' and 'nature'. I combined the two words and chose 'mother nature' as the theme of my work. I tried to highlight the concept of this statue - a person who is willing to share her love with someone else - by depicting a forward-leaning position suggesting her willingness to offer love and making a heart-shaped foothold.
This was my very first full-length sculpture and this project took me six months to complete. It was the most challenging work I have ever done. I had to learn almost everything from scratch, including frame building, metal engraving and plaster mold casting, and I worked around the clock for days at a university building. I successfully completed this work thanks to help from senior students, professors and many others. Through this experience, I learned that I can often achieve better outcomes through collaboration and also gained confidence for challenging projects.

If someone asks me when I am the happiest during the day, I would say when I manage to secure a seat on a crowded subway train. With this idea in my mind, I planned this stage design work called 'Sweet Dreams on the Subway Train'. On the train depicted in this work, the sheep seems to fully enjoy his happiness without paying attention to the wolves, predators surrounding him. The wolves represent different age groups - 40-something people, teenagers, 30-something and 20-something people. Each of the wolves is weighing two typical issues common in their age group. For example, the 40-something male wolf on the far left is most interested in money and his daughter. As he thinks his daughter is far more important than money, the scale is tipped in favor of his daughter. On the other hand, the teenager chooses university admission preparation over travelling and the 30-something lady thinks marriage and career are equally important. With the 20-something wolf's scale, GPA management slightly outweighs having drinks. The background image behind the window frames implies problems in today's society.

2016

7 x 11 in

Laser cut Plywood, plastic headband

2015

16 x 21 x 11 in

Frp

I wanted to express that sometimes I also felt empty-hearted like most other people. I made a hole in the right chest of a female sculpture to convey this feeling.Since I wanted to show that these were my works in a humorous way, I applied colors inspired by the character Thomas as it is my nickname.

Ceramics

In the Art Institute of Chicago, I found an upper body statue called “Head and Torso of a Dancing Figure” which was used as a funerary sculpture.

Compared to its relaxed face, its arms are wavy looking like it is dancing. This work made me think: Is death a bad thing that we have to fear? What reaction would I want from people at my funeral?

As it does not have the bottom body part, I used my imagination to create my own dancing figure implying my wish for what reaction I want from people at my funeral. I want my people to think I have started my second life and that is something they should celebrate: dancing and thinking about those precious moments they had with me and celebrating my second life.

Death is not a thing we always have to be afraid of, it is something we have to talk more about with a smile like we smile at the butt of this figure! The fact that death is for everyone makes our life more special.

This comic book is based on the interview I had with Dean and Joyce at The Mather, a nursing home in Evanston, Illinois. Even though I was there to ask them questions about their lives and to listen to them, I ended up learning precious life experiences from them. Therefore, I decided to make a comic book based on what I learned from this interview and showed it to my class and friends. I was amazed at how my comic book created empathy to not only Dean, Joyce, and me, but also to the readers.

2016

11 x 11 in each

Pencil on paper

This is a letter consisting of drawings that I wrote to myself in the past, as I struggled with different things and wished for advice from myself from the future.

If I could talk to myself in the past, I would say: “Don’t worry, what you are doing is right.”

Acrylic on canvas

These were my way of showing affection. I wanted to show people they were precious to someone. While working on these busts, I found it interesting and intriguing that we were all people and yet nobody had the same facial features and expression. This made me want to study human faces further, and I ended up observing over 100 faces for two years and making clay head sculptures. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about the basics of the human body and what I learned from this project became hugely beneficial when I was subsequently doing my own projects.

Water jet cut & Powder-coated on Aluminum

2022

Inspired by McGoldrick’s family genogram symbols, I created this art consisting of my own symbols that represent various emotional and relational relationships.

While studying family and couple therapy, I realized that there is often more than one emotional relationship with family members. For example, they are sometimes close and distant. With this art, I expect to use this for my future family therapy sessions to assist my clients/patients verbalize their family relations.

“I will store my homes in the letter of ‘YOU’, and keep getting reminded of what I’ve achieved from my communities.”

In this illustration, there are three letters: Y, O, and U. Those letters are in the shape of houses. For me, “Home” is where I find comfort, also a place that gives me anxiety. It is a place where I build my identities. Since home refers to the society that people live in and everyone sees society in different ways, talking about home ultimately leads to a conversation about social injustice starting from a casual conversation.

There are two art therapy workshops I made with this illustration.

Please check them out!

SEND A POSTCARD TO YOUR COMMUNITY

Y.O.U COLORING PAGE

“Sumin, what would you want to be?”

This is a question I always heard from others and myself as well. Sometimes, I felt useless as I did not have a clear answer for it.

However, in my first Art Therapy class, I realized that I was always trying to find the answer based on my job choices, not what kind of person that I wanted to be. At last, I found the answer: I want to be a happy person who can share the happiness with others.

I printed this mini comic book multiple times and gave them to people who seemed worried about their career choices to share my realization.

Relief print on paper, Illustrated in Procreate

In the spring semester of 2017, spring came to Chicago. It was my second semester in my new school and was my first spring in Chicago. By then, I had many good friends, knew where to go for snacks, could distinguish how to pronounce “fork” and “pork” correctly, and no longer got lost on campus. Most of all, I was so grateful for my life in Chicago. It was the first time I felt spring in my heart.

Illustrated in Procreate, Photoshop

Animated in After Effects

Through this moving satire illustration, I tried to point out how Facebook has earned its reputation as a hotspot for internet hackers, as well as being notorious for allowing third parties the permission to gather data about its users.