Absolutely in love with Haya Kim’s sweeping and moody paintings, which might be described best as mysteries and memories of experiences within a landscape — particularly the prairie landscape of Kansas, where she is spending the summer after completing an MFA at MICA.
Can you tell me a little bit about you?
I received M.F.A. in Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art in May 2018.
I have been working in Baltimore, Maryland, and Kansas.
What ideas are you exploring in your practice?
I was sitting in the prairie.
I was looking at the moving clouds,
feeling the wind touching me.
In the morning, I walked
and the grass was wet with dew.
In the evening, I walked
and clusters of fireflies burst over the prairie.
Two big trees/soughed with warm wind.
leaves and branches were swaying softly/and made balmy sound.
After dusk fell,
it was quiet, but it was not quiet.
Every leaf was busy and gave me sound.
As I gave my eyes to them, they showed me more and more of each of their movements.
The prairie I saw
The sounds I heard
are still always in my head
and I am following my brush with what I am remembering.
What is your process like?
I paint with memory I always bring in me. But the mood at the moment when I paint also affect my gestural shape. Painting holds that moment on my canvas as records of my feelings. It is an experience of seeing what I was thinking, and painting could become my presence. My presence moments were accumulated in my painting. I don’t plan ahead anything until I start painting and I don’t start with that positioning of shape. My gestures are left on my painting and these collapsed brush stroke lead me to find and discover the composition. Where they end is not where I expect them to go. We feel differently everyday and every moment. What I feel and think at one time is not the same as it is at other moment so the work naturally is different each day. I hoped to paint my personal imagery and that my feeling itself could be embedded with the medium by hand.
Do you have a mentor, or a piece of advice (or both), which has influenced your practice?
”If making clouds is what is on your mind, then you will have clouds, and making water is what is on your mind, you will have water.”
-François Jullien-
What is your studio like?
I have some photos of my studio in my Instagram account, but I am welcome to share original photos if you need any!
What are three words you would use to describe your work?
“Body”, “Sense”, “Memory.”
-from my painting review by artist Stephen Ellis-
What are you working on right now?
Currently I am enjoying summer of prairie in Kansas and making small drawings.
Anything else you would like to add?
Thank you. 🙂
Find more at hayakim.com and on Instagram @hayakim_!
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