Art Opening
The art show's opening was at 6pm last night and we headed out to the gallery at around 2pm. We got there around 3:30 and took care of some last minute details of putting up the name cards on the pieces, Mike Gee had to have his pieces burnished down from his adhesive not working due to the humidity, and we all signed our pieces.
The gallery owner said that they would look much better signed, and even though none of us were going to, because he suggested it we all did. I think he was right. Unsigned they're just prints hanging on the wall...when they're signed somehow they take on a more important meaning.
I went for a short hike up into the mountains before the show just to stretch my legs and try to find something 'natural' to photograph. Found myself walking up into some new houses being built, much like they would be like in Park City or Deer Valley. Nice big-ish houses on a HUGE parcel of land. Found some neat Japanese maple trees and played around wtih the brilliant red leaves against the lush green grass. Nothing earth shattering, but they'll be nice to show students when we talk about color. In fact the whole event, the orchestra, the setting, the people, everything had a decidedly Park City feel to it.
Got back to the gallery in time to hear the chamber orchestra finish warming up. They had a nice thirty member group...all women (didn't quite figure out why), that performed for the gallery patrons. I wondered just how many people would actually show up and asked the gallery owner if people would come even though the gallery is an hour and a half out of Seoul. He replied: "They will come". It was a very 'Field-of-Dreams' moment.
Right on que they started showing up around 5:30, and they poured in. The entire parking area was full, and there were probably about 250 guests at the concert. There was also a pretty good Baritone singer that even Simon Cowell might have approved of.
The gallery opening started before the concert, so the people in the gallery gathered around to hear our introduction by the gallery owner. He and I have become somewhat 'chummy', which is fun, but he put me on the spot and asked me to introduce our group to the smaller crowd of about 30 people. I think I have become somewhat of a circus act in my ability to speak the language. One-on-one it is really fun to be able to speak, but when asked to represent the group from USU and address a crowd, I kind of froze.
I told the crowd that "my Korean is bad, so my introduction will be short. Alan Hashimoto and the rest of our group wants to thank the gallery very much for the chance to come and share our work. Also we'd like to thank...um...uhhhh...if I continue to go on my introduction won't be short anymore", which got a good laugh. I have a few 'one-liners' in Korean, which seem to go over pretty well when the timing is right. When they don't go over well I chalk it up to either: a: my inability to speak Korean, b: a mistranslation from my brain to my mouth to their ears or, c: they just didn't get it.
I had a very flattering experience with two very sweet ladies. They have been childhood friends for 40 years and really liked my photography. They came up and asked if they could buy some of them. I was really taken back because I hadn't even planned on being in the show initially and luckily had some prints to throw in at the last minute. I couldn't put a price on some small prints that I had brought to give away as gifts, so I told them they could buy them for 1000 won...about 90 cents each. They looked at me in a puzzled way and I chalked that joke up to reason 'c' from my list above.
I then told them that since they liked them so much that they could just have them for free as a gift. They were very happy, and a bit surprized. I took them upstairs to let them show me which prints they liked, and they ended up liking the same ones. There was a friendly battle for the selection of the prints, but one of the ladies deferred to the other and they both ended up with prints they liked.
I was very curious as to why they liked which prints they did, so I asked them why they liked them and really wanted them to explain what drew them to the particular image. I wasn't going to let them off the hook by just telling me 'I like it'. My students can't get away with it and neither would these ladies.
One of the women, Park Chan-Jeoung is a professor in the Departrment of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine. She liked the 'Birds in Cornfield'. I asked her what drew her to the piece and she said that she has never had the opportunity to see such a thing. She also liked the 'artistic' composition.
My students are forced to expound on their choice of the word 'artistic', but I let her slide in this instance. She said she also really liked the feeling that she got when looking at the image. In my book, if someone gets even a sliver of feeling they're my best friend. She made me very happy when she told me that.
I told her about how the birds look when they flew above the cornfield, like waves on the ocean back and forth, then they would scatter suddenly, re-group and fly together in waves again. She was really happy to hear my description.
The other lady, Shim Jae-Won, is the President and CEO of Dong Kang Medical Systems. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm going to Google it and find out more. She liked the Apple Orchard in Winter.
When I was trying to decide how to title my pieces simply, so that the viewer might be able to translate them from Korean into English, I decided to keep the titles short and to the point. I was influenced in that decision by the show we'd seen earlier in the week. The artist's titles were simple enough for me to read and translate from Korean into English, so I thought that tactic would work in reverse. Apparently it did.
I asked Miss Shim why she liked the Apple Orchard in Winter piece. She said, "In Korea we like Apple, we like Tree and we like Snow". She also liked the way the trees moved in the image. A simple explanation for a simple image with a simple title.
I've decided that my overriding philosophy of 'Simple' comes from my Korean language aquisition. To speak Korean as an English speaker you start out with simple concepts in English, translate them into simple sentences in Korean, then hope your language comes out of your mouth with simple pronunciation. It is a trick to take a complex idea in English, re-translate it into a simpler idea in English, then translate it into Korean. That's been my strategy with speaking, and I think it really kind of formed a larger philosophy in my photography. Now I know most probably wouldn't agree that it relates to all aspects of my life, but I'm trying.
I had a very interesting conversation with the gallery owner yesterday while looking at his own painting. The word 'simple' does not translate into Korean. We both found it 'ironic' (another concept with no word in Korean), that there's no word for 'simple'. He knew it in English and we went around and around trying to find a Korean word for it. No success. We'll keep looking.
I did find out that he's not all that famous as a painter, but as an architect and owner of the gallery and the Gail Art Center he is famous. He's also still rich.
Miss Shim also liked other pieces, the 12 Bald Eagles and the Birds in Cornfield, but she was happy to end up with the piece of the trees.
They came up to me after the concert thanking me again, and wanted to take me out to dinner on the 30th. So, it looks like I have my first date. I think it will be fun.
We got back very late and wanted to go eat something, so a few of us wandered around at 11:30 trying to find a place that was still open. We found a 'tavern' and I asked if she was still cooking. She was, and so we sat down. She came to take our order and was a bit dissapointed that we didn't order any alcohol but did manage to order 3 dishes that are somewhat difficult to make. I don't think I've ever had any better O-jing-O Pokkum (fried squid) in my life. Got back late and crashed hard.
The gallery owner said that they would look much better signed, and even though none of us were going to, because he suggested it we all did. I think he was right. Unsigned they're just prints hanging on the wall...when they're signed somehow they take on a more important meaning.
I went for a short hike up into the mountains before the show just to stretch my legs and try to find something 'natural' to photograph. Found myself walking up into some new houses being built, much like they would be like in Park City or Deer Valley. Nice big-ish houses on a HUGE parcel of land. Found some neat Japanese maple trees and played around wtih the brilliant red leaves against the lush green grass. Nothing earth shattering, but they'll be nice to show students when we talk about color. In fact the whole event, the orchestra, the setting, the people, everything had a decidedly Park City feel to it.
Got back to the gallery in time to hear the chamber orchestra finish warming up. They had a nice thirty member group...all women (didn't quite figure out why), that performed for the gallery patrons. I wondered just how many people would actually show up and asked the gallery owner if people would come even though the gallery is an hour and a half out of Seoul. He replied: "They will come". It was a very 'Field-of-Dreams' moment.
Right on que they started showing up around 5:30, and they poured in. The entire parking area was full, and there were probably about 250 guests at the concert. There was also a pretty good Baritone singer that even Simon Cowell might have approved of.
The gallery opening started before the concert, so the people in the gallery gathered around to hear our introduction by the gallery owner. He and I have become somewhat 'chummy', which is fun, but he put me on the spot and asked me to introduce our group to the smaller crowd of about 30 people. I think I have become somewhat of a circus act in my ability to speak the language. One-on-one it is really fun to be able to speak, but when asked to represent the group from USU and address a crowd, I kind of froze.
I told the crowd that "my Korean is bad, so my introduction will be short. Alan Hashimoto and the rest of our group wants to thank the gallery very much for the chance to come and share our work. Also we'd like to thank...um...uhhhh...if I continue to go on my introduction won't be short anymore", which got a good laugh. I have a few 'one-liners' in Korean, which seem to go over pretty well when the timing is right. When they don't go over well I chalk it up to either: a: my inability to speak Korean, b: a mistranslation from my brain to my mouth to their ears or, c: they just didn't get it.
I had a very flattering experience with two very sweet ladies. They have been childhood friends for 40 years and really liked my photography. They came up and asked if they could buy some of them. I was really taken back because I hadn't even planned on being in the show initially and luckily had some prints to throw in at the last minute. I couldn't put a price on some small prints that I had brought to give away as gifts, so I told them they could buy them for 1000 won...about 90 cents each. They looked at me in a puzzled way and I chalked that joke up to reason 'c' from my list above.
I then told them that since they liked them so much that they could just have them for free as a gift. They were very happy, and a bit surprized. I took them upstairs to let them show me which prints they liked, and they ended up liking the same ones. There was a friendly battle for the selection of the prints, but one of the ladies deferred to the other and they both ended up with prints they liked.
I was very curious as to why they liked which prints they did, so I asked them why they liked them and really wanted them to explain what drew them to the particular image. I wasn't going to let them off the hook by just telling me 'I like it'. My students can't get away with it and neither would these ladies.
One of the women, Park Chan-Jeoung is a professor in the Departrment of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine. She liked the 'Birds in Cornfield'. I asked her what drew her to the piece and she said that she has never had the opportunity to see such a thing. She also liked the 'artistic' composition.
My students are forced to expound on their choice of the word 'artistic', but I let her slide in this instance. She said she also really liked the feeling that she got when looking at the image. In my book, if someone gets even a sliver of feeling they're my best friend. She made me very happy when she told me that.
I told her about how the birds look when they flew above the cornfield, like waves on the ocean back and forth, then they would scatter suddenly, re-group and fly together in waves again. She was really happy to hear my description.
The other lady, Shim Jae-Won, is the President and CEO of Dong Kang Medical Systems. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm going to Google it and find out more. She liked the Apple Orchard in Winter.
When I was trying to decide how to title my pieces simply, so that the viewer might be able to translate them from Korean into English, I decided to keep the titles short and to the point. I was influenced in that decision by the show we'd seen earlier in the week. The artist's titles were simple enough for me to read and translate from Korean into English, so I thought that tactic would work in reverse. Apparently it did.
I asked Miss Shim why she liked the Apple Orchard in Winter piece. She said, "In Korea we like Apple, we like Tree and we like Snow". She also liked the way the trees moved in the image. A simple explanation for a simple image with a simple title.
I've decided that my overriding philosophy of 'Simple' comes from my Korean language aquisition. To speak Korean as an English speaker you start out with simple concepts in English, translate them into simple sentences in Korean, then hope your language comes out of your mouth with simple pronunciation. It is a trick to take a complex idea in English, re-translate it into a simpler idea in English, then translate it into Korean. That's been my strategy with speaking, and I think it really kind of formed a larger philosophy in my photography. Now I know most probably wouldn't agree that it relates to all aspects of my life, but I'm trying.
I had a very interesting conversation with the gallery owner yesterday while looking at his own painting. The word 'simple' does not translate into Korean. We both found it 'ironic' (another concept with no word in Korean), that there's no word for 'simple'. He knew it in English and we went around and around trying to find a Korean word for it. No success. We'll keep looking.
I did find out that he's not all that famous as a painter, but as an architect and owner of the gallery and the Gail Art Center he is famous. He's also still rich.
Miss Shim also liked other pieces, the 12 Bald Eagles and the Birds in Cornfield, but she was happy to end up with the piece of the trees.
They came up to me after the concert thanking me again, and wanted to take me out to dinner on the 30th. So, it looks like I have my first date. I think it will be fun.
We got back very late and wanted to go eat something, so a few of us wandered around at 11:30 trying to find a place that was still open. We found a 'tavern' and I asked if she was still cooking. She was, and so we sat down. She came to take our order and was a bit dissapointed that we didn't order any alcohol but did manage to order 3 dishes that are somewhat difficult to make. I don't think I've ever had any better O-jing-O Pokkum (fried squid) in my life. Got back late and crashed hard.
posted by Michael at
4:59 PM
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