I was raised in a rural mountain village in South Korea, home to one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the country. My grandfather was a monk who exiled himself to the mountains, coming down to the village occasionally to sell art objects and perform repairs on the temple. My father was a dreamer and a sometimes-metalsmith. As a child, I learned how to manipulate raw materials by assisting them both in their work. I later apprenticed with a classical painter who introduced me to the practice of expression through abstraction.

After immigrating to the United States, I received a formal art education, earning a BFA from the University of Georgia and MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Today, I work out of a private studio in Chicago, sustaining my connection to the natural world and spirit through contemporary abstract painting. I work from a sense of playfulness, always resisting definition and toying with the imagined dichotomies of East/West, feminine/masculine, heaven/earth. My aim is to create art that attunes the busy mind to the mystical and mundane present.