Moon Hee Kim
What are your earliest memories of being artistic? I enjoyed making hand-painted Christmas cards when I was a teenage girl, many of my loved ones sent me a thank note in return every year.
When did art become a pursuit? After I earned a Master degree in business, I began working in the hospitality industry. I became passionate about nature conservation and the interrelationship between travel, art, architecture in order to characterize the significance of travel as a subject of particular interest.
Are you self-taught or formally educated in visual art? Yes, I am formally educated, I have BFA with honors from MassArt and MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts.
In what other ways are you involved in the local art community? I began participating in the local art communities in New York and Boston. Visual image making is great ways of creating community-based arts activities that will help our community to transform and unite.
Plastic Pearl 1, Oil on Canvas
What role do you think the artist plays in society? Through art-making and community engagement, artists can play a significant role. Art becomes a vehicle for perpetuating various positions embedded in society.
What medium do you currently work in and how did you choose this medium? I use diverse media. A technique essential to my practice is producing still-life paintings and objects that can better communicate information to the public. By using still-life techniques in paintings from observing site-specific and site-responsive installations, I explore how the environment, society, and culture are linked with the issues of climate change. The still-life paintings and objects are a carefully constructed reality that manifests the way in which I relate to the world. The notion of clay and metal in my objects are an important metaphysics because we are all part of nature. We influence nature to create human civilization.
What is your creative process? Where are you finding ideas for your art these days? Much of my ideas are based on my own experience and ongoing research. While I was living in the coastal area of the Mexican Caribbean, my life has faced many challenges due to beach erosion, seawater pollution, and rising seawater temperature. At one point, my family had to construct a 330-foot-long seawall in front of our home to protect it from the action of tides and waves. As an open water scuba diver, I have witnessed the number of fish and sea turtles in the area decreasing significantly over the last decade.
Maintenance Rehearsal, Oil on Canvas
How do you choose your subject matter? Is there a reoccurring theme that carries throughout your work? I am passionate about the issues of climate change since I wrote a dissertation on the integrated coastal zone management. I’ve chosen this issue in my art as a sense of urgency in personal and social importance. My works are conceptualized in terms of causes and effects, which have long-term implications. The repercussion might be felt in places and times that are remote from their origins. They do not unfold uniformly but demonstrate thresholds that lead to some dramatic and irreversible changes that are difficult to anticipate. Environmental challenge is central to ways of understanding my work, it is complex and multi-layered.
In your opinion, what’s your best/favorite piece you’ve made? This spring, I was traveling and saw the plastic garbage floating around the Caribbean Sea, my heart was broken and I painted from my heart all night and eventually it had won an award.
What is one of your artistic goals? I hope to create meaningful paintings and objects so I can lead lectures and presentations that raise critical issues concerning climate change. I have developed a high standard and knowledge that can help community-based art projects. Through my art and presentations, I hope to take viewers on an emotional and pragmatic journey to think and reflect on the possibilities and alternatives for our future.
Vise Performance 1, Oil on Canvas
What’s your favorite place to see art? I enjoy art museums and local art festivals. Florence in Italy, SoWa Art & Design district in Boston and Chelsea art walk in New York.
What living artists are you inspired by? I am inspired by artists that are creative and passionate about finding subjects in the increasingly popular seaside. I am also interested in environment artists at a time of artistic experimentation and prolific who shares my subject interests who transcribing their perceptions through the medium of oil paint, metal, and clay.
Do you own any art by other artists? When I was living in England and the Netherlands, my family collected paintings by Dutch landscape painters and a local Dutch artist Arie Dubbeldam.
Do you have any shows coming up? Yes, my works will be exhibited at Miami Spectrum from December 5-9, 2018.
See More Moon Hee!
Website: moonheekimart.com