By Diplomacy Journal Lee Jon-young

Artist Joo Eun-young's note | Sometimes, we need a gesture to comfort us and give us delight and courage to look ahead.

When I suddenly lifted my head up from my slumped position one day, the leaves hanging from the high branches against the blue sky, swaying gently, were like a vision waving to me. 

When we raise our hands and wave, when we raise our arms and wave, when we face each other and wave vigorously, and when we laugh together like that, the souls that have been withered by the desire that pierces each other and the conflict that spreads like a fungus are at once purified, and the purely joyful and unadorned smiles that we see are the most desperate wishes for us to open our palms and wave back.

The voyage series is an attempt to extract the sparkling moments of our lives from each of our long journeys, stacked with memories, promises, and long-held dreams, to unite our imaginations and express how interconnected our lives are, and to capture the heart that flows beyond horizons and boundaries and into the future. 

And like a humpback whale that swims the ocean without eating for months for its young after filling its belly with krill shrimp, the intention is to fill our hearts with golden courage, dreaming and aiming for the beyond, and navigating the complex whirlpools of jealousy and conflict, desire and despair, or hope and joy.

The voyage_story (episode) series is about our stories. 

Stories overflow and flow overnight, becoming lakes and rivers.

They will take wings and fly, become clouds, become the moon, become fog, become rain, touch the earth, become seeds, buds, flowers, fragrance.

It spreads, blooms, becomes a star, becomes a tear, becomes a sigh, becomes a hope, becomes a dream that rests lightly on a sleeping forehead, becomes a face that wakes up in the dark of dawn, becomes a longing forgotten in sleep, becomes a dreamy season that passes like a breeze, like spring, and the stories pile up like this. Somewhere down there, the stories of the spring night deepen like a memory.

Technique

Hundreds and thousands of pieces of acrylic paint are made and glued together. The artist repeatedly increases the density by drawing and scraping the base. The representation of cracks is a metaphor for the source of existence, such as the starting point, the earth, and the mother's womb.

Career

2021 Representative of Nowon Healing Art Festival, a public-private partnership project   
2023 104 Representative of Village Public Art Project Group, Art Support Project Competition

19 solo exhibitions
Seoul Art Show, Jeju Art Festa, Busan Gallery Art Fair BAMA, Molding Art Show PLAS, Daegu Art Show, etc.
Over 200 domestic and international art fairs and group exhibitions

Currently

Secretary General of International Contemporary Art Association
Secretary General of International Insa Art Fair 
Korea Green Art Association
       Member of Nowon Art Association
       Member of Korean Art Association
       Artist-in-residence at Nowon Cultural Foundation 104 Village Art Factory