Inspired by Japanese folklore that sparks fear in the hearts of both locals and foreigners. There is a twist in the seemingly-innocent photograph of Shirakawa-Go scarecrows by having ghosts creep around them. ‘Manga’ comic elements are also imitated through the use of Lichenstein dots in the ghosts, in which they are further accentuated through bright neon colors to draw the audience’s eyes.

Here, I portray fear in 4-Dimensions using mundane objects. Sharp materials are used to evoke a sense of discomfort. “E” represents society’s tendency to overlook one’s fears and anxieties – to the extreme point of romanticizing them. From afar, “E” is colorful and beautiful. But upon taking a closer look, the sharpness of the CDs edges sparks the feeling of danger, juxtaposing the viewer’s false sense of security.

In this superficial world where everything is judged by physical features, inner beauty is forgotten. This also makes fashion associated with unrealistic beauty standards; hence, I am dismantling this idea. When inner beauty is noticed, it has the power to change the way one perceives the outer appearance. Similarly, the white pearls, and fur stitched on the outer layer represent outer beauty while the painted symbols inside represent inner beauty over-shining the outer beauty elements.

No one seems to realize the magnitude of the melting sea ice since it hasn’t directly impacted humans. By personifying the animals using astronaut suits, the audience sees through their lenses and discerns the urgency. The mother is worried about the feasibility of escaping the melting earth while its child is intrigued by the planet above them it thinks it could get to but the vision only gets more unreachable. To evoke sympathy, the mother polar bear is seen fighting for its child’s life.

Reworking the conventional shapes, metal and transparent fabric of a variety of skin tones form the body in 3D to symbolize physical and mental confinement from societal standards. Do Ho Suh’s style and medium are used to illustrate different body proportions and silhouettes. Two are installed in the back and two are installed in front for the audience to see the balance between the figures standing from the front view, whereas one standing out more than the others standing from the side view.

The portrait portrays confidence in African American women despite segregation in the past. The medium graphite is used to shade values of skin texture, dark skin, and proportionate body realistically. In the 1970s, women of color were seen lower in status, shown through the head-piece covering the hair to avoid attracting men. To appreciate the beauty of racial differences, the red diamond is emphasized through the technique of hyperrealism to symbolize bloodshed through violence in Africa.

Behind one success, there are ten times the struggles. This is portrayed through the use of Mt. Everest, known for its difficulty, as a symbol for the enormous hardships and obstacles that one goes through to achieve success. Pen and ink were used to create a black and white color scheme, emphasizing on how painful and boring the process is. The human figures were drawn small compared to the mountain to portray how big the struggle feels while 7 of them represent the 7 steps to reach success.

This artwork explores more on the video game elements. Taking major inspirations from Duck Hunt, elements of the said video game such as a health bar and pop-ups were included. To contrast the pixel art style, realistic elements of photography are incorporated. This is shown through the photograph of the subject matter that is edited to fit in the pixel art background. The subject matter shows the movement of the practice while the looping element shows the continuous and never-ending struggle.

Mother Nature is a landscape piece that was inspired by the concept of fatherhood represented through a rock in my studio piece ‘Splashed’. Similar to that artwork, I portrayed my mother’s personality through the compositional landscape of a garden. By further developing my skills in graphite, I aim to show more contrast as well as an exploration in making textures in nature as this is something that I lacked before in my previous graphite artwork ‘Emotion’.

Prayer’ is the development of using wood as the medium from my previous studio piece ‘To Feel Connected’. My intention was to capture the idea of protection from parents through praying. The style depicted is cubism, as it focuses on the idea of using geometric shapes to complete the functional purpose of a building that acts as a shelter. I decided on cubism by using simple geometrical shapes as it clearly depicts the structural shape of our hands.

This digital painting shows what a human would look like if they depended on technology to overcome their imperfections. The man in the painting is unfit and uses metal limbs to offset this flaw, but must recharge them and cannot walk. The legs in the background are unaffected by newly introduced problems that the former faces. I used watercolor brushes in order to create a natural appearance of shadows and lighting so that the artwork is more realistic and relatable to the viewer.

War is a tragic inevitability, but that does not stop popular media from glorifying it. The artwork shows a giant robot towering over the masses in Tokyo, posing like a guardian but bearing foreboding colors of black, yellow, and red. Appearing like a protector, like a god down to his worshippers, on a society that relies on a machine’s protection. The use of photography and digital painting shows a real city, just changed slightly to show how our society is not too far removed from this scene.

My rendition of two iconic fantasy characters, werewolf, and elf; portrayed by my parents. It shows daily presence & representation of fantasy characters in real living beings. It focuses on an indirect character study on real-life human beings in accordance with who they as well as focuses on aspects like color, detail & composition to evoke the right emotions for the audiences. Having a digital render of the werewolf results in a more realistic and expressive werewolf of my dad.

This sculpture is a half-scale size head sculpture of a dungeons and dragons’ character of the same name who is a lawful evil dragon-born and is a piece related to Xargadon the Destroyer. this being a resin piece would allow for a realistic, durable, and good-looking statue. The sculpture is supposed to represent the justification of choices made by people when creating a fictional character just like in D&D and what having an evil character over neutral or good justifies.

The best of intentions can still breed toxic environments. Though parents may want to help their children succeed, sometimes their efforts do more harm than good. The runny properties of watercolor emphasize the spreading of the toxic. The flower symbolism shows innocence burned while the power of the conqueror blooms. Like ‘Distortion: Rejected,’ I was inspired by personal experience and Asian background. Asian ‘tiger parents’ are known to criticize children’s abilities rather than nurturing.

There are many components that makeup society. In exploring my theme, I realize that many of them inhibit us, such as modern social standards and their contribution to global warming. However, we can’t live without society. It is a stagnant tug of war between society’s growth and what it is built upon. The different hands represent the aspects of society, preventing the figure from moving forward. I chose diverse materials to convey the idea of the great diversity of society’s components.

Tiger has been my main subject matter for the past year as a tiger represents Korea and the royalness. The medium I have selected for this piece is, pen and ink. I have used the stippling method in order to create the values and to show the texture. The theme and medium are connected to the previous pieces. The tiger is roaring, and this shows the fierceness of the tiger and the strengths and power that the tiger expresses, just like a king.

“Childhood” continues the concept of the piece “I AM the QUEEN”. The medium of this piece is a color pencil, and through the use of color pencil, I was able to achieve a realistic look and convey the theme of childhood by the vibrant colors that color pencil can achieve. This piece was created to remind teenagers or even adults that, we as a kid used to dream of being a queen or a princess, and often thought that we were by using a crown.

Transcendent is a continuation of “Generation?”, and likewise, it depicts what I imagine to be three different versions of myself at different eras—an idea stemming from my desire to experience life at a different time. Inspired by Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau, this piece aims to convey its message by combining a traditional style with the modern medium of digital. With this, I hope to implore my audience to challenge limitations set by time and space through the means of imagination.

“Inspired by the Chinese Legend of the White Snake, “Reunion” is a two-part painting on an umbrella. The exterior depicts the animal spirits that tried to keep the lovers (a man and a white snake spirit) apart. The interior depicts the lovers embracing in their reunion, sheltered away inside the safety of the umbrella. Washes, soft colors, and dark outlines are used to emulate Chinese ink paintings. An oil-paper umbrella is used both for its meaning and for its status as a Chinese cultural icon.