Do you have any influences?
I tend to be influenced by pretty much everything. I can be influenced by conversations, or the beauty of nature, even just walking the dog, so really I can be influenced by everyday experiences.
What about other artists?
There are some painters who might have made an impact on me, Richard Diebenkorn, John Mitchell, and Patrick Heron. I think I drew some influences from those painters.
Why do you paint in the abstract?
I was very good in terms of drawing realistic images, and I started off doing that both in my paintings and my drawings. The more I did that, the more I kept drawing in a realistic way, I started to feel that it wasn’t the right path for me creatively.
Moving towards abstraction, I felt that orientation offered more options. It is you the artist who has to make the decisions regarding how the painting will look, you make the decisions as to how it is structured, what light and shade should be part of the painting, what the colours should offer in terms of their strength or their position in the painting. It is more to do with material, action, happening on the surface. How the paint applied on the surface becomes more important.
And once the painting is finished, then the interpretations of that work are open to the people who view the work.
What draws you to the colours you use?
First of all, I start with a blank canvas and I work with movement and of course the colour is the key for my work. Colour is the first thing I put value on, but I am also thinking how the colours will be placed in the painting so that the people who view the painting will be placed in a particular space so that they are drawn to the placement of the colours.
Are you trying to convey any particular feelings with your work?
I think feelings is the right word. I don’t have any form in my work. To me the structuring of the colours, and I am often working on a series of paintings at the same time, so there are several paintings which emerge from a period of painting, is vital to give each painting a sense of individuality, even if that painting is part of a series. It is the placement of the colours, the layering of the colours, which determine how the paintings will affect the viewer.
Often it can seem that everything is just thrown on to the canvas, but there are many hours put in to make sure that the colours, the composition, the structure, is all balanced together. I do want the viewer to get inside the painting and yes I would like them to feel something when they look at the work. It would be nice if my work pleases people, to enhance the atmosphere. So the painting is not quite about myself, but for others to enjoy.
How do you choose the titles for the paintings?
That is a mystery, I’m not sure I can explain where all the titles come from.
Where to now?
I am always in a battle with myself to finish my paintings; I have many paintings which I have worked on over the years and I just haven’t finished them. I am now working on a number of those paintings.
I don’t have any exhibitions coming up, but my paintings can be viewed on my website and are available in the gallery which exhibits my work.
If you would like to see more of Jee-Young Kim’s paintings please click on the links below
www.quaygallery.co.nz/store/p3312/%27Next_Step%27_by_Jee-Young_Kim.html