studio notes

The Island Series by Sunhee Kim Jung

On a recent trip to Seoul for a joint exhibition with Sunhee Kim Jung, I was asked what I most admired about South Korea. My answer was the connection between architecture and nature. The mountains surrounding Seoul, the trees, palaces, temples, traditional as well as contemporary architecture seemed connected – integrated.

After returning, I see Sunhee’s work exploring nature and our relationship to it in a new way.

Her series named The Island painted during the height of the pandemic is inspired by the Transom windows in her home. (The primary purpose of the transom window is to increase natural light. )

In this series, the viewer peers through the narrow window or “picture frame” to view nature.

Even when we are not in nature, the idea of it can create a sense of peace in the midst of solitude. Sunhee creates a visual poem by using color symbolically to represent different emotions that working together – create a haven for the soul.

I am please to announce that Sunhee’s Island series will be on exhibit at the Goodwin House – Alexandria from March 2 – April 11, 2023.

The Island Series paintings are available through Distinct Studios. Please visit Sunhee’s artist page to view details and to inquire about availability. Thank you for reading!

Transom Window at The National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Window, National Contemporary Museum of Art

National Contemporary Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea. Photo Credit: Mary Welch Higgins

By Mary Higgins|2023-03-01T00:05:32+00:00February 28, 2023|

Seeing Slowly

In the US, Labor Day signals that summer is over!

Announcements for art gatherings, openings and lectures are streaming into my email box and onto my social media feeds.

Before the art season starts again, I’d like to share an experience that jarred me.

It’s about social media.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Instagram. I post about art and artists.

Recently, I realized the need to slow down and return to the reason that I find art an essential part of my experience. I was looking at a large “coffee table” size art book of works on paper by the artist, Do Ho Suh. I stopped myself suddenly because I realized that I was flipping through the pages as if I was randomly scrolling through Instagram. I was scanning not seeing.

After multiple sessions of scanning the book, I had become aware. I slowed down. I began to experience his drawings and prints. The work began to reveal itself. It was an intense experience.

How do you look at art – both in person and online? How have social media platforms impacted the way you look and see?

During conversations about social media, I often advocate for social media as “Marketing” with a capital M. That’s it!

Until recently I had not considered its subtle but real impact on the way that I look and see.

For lessons in slowing down, I recommend a valuable book in my art book collection entitled “Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art” by Michael Findlay. You may know his book “The Value of Art”. If you are new to the art, I recommend reading “Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art” first before going on to “The Value of Art”. Both are well written but “Seeing Slowly” is more personal.

Check it out!

Bibliography

Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art
Michael Findlay
Prestel, 2017
ISBN: 9783791383835

By Mary Higgins|2022-09-07T16:48:38+00:00September 6, 2022|

The Ostinato and Coda Series by Sarah J. Hull

The Ostinato and Coda Series by Fiber and Conceptual Artist Sarah J. Hull
Exhibition Dates: July 5, 2022 through August 15, 2022
Exhibit Reception and Artist Talk: Saturday July 30, 2022, 2-4PM

Distinct Studios Fine Art is pleased to present Sarah J. Hull’s Ostinato and Coda series in the Small House Gallery of Goodwin House in Alexandria, Virginia in July and August of 2022.

Sarah has a background in architecture, science and visual art. She received her BA in Architecture from Wesllesley College with pertinent course work at M.I.T. Her varied background informs her work including her explorations of music.

In her art, she explores the rhythmic variation in our daily lives. Using natural fibers and hand embroidery stitches, each work explores it’s “objectness” with the tension created between hand-stitched materials and the structure of the underlying grid. The resulting work creates a mediative presence.

In her process, she begins with a concept that has has inspired her. She then follows that idea in a series of works that create an iteration of the theme. The Ostinato series demonstrates this process elegantly. In music, an Ostinato is a short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied. A rhythmic Ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. In the Ostinato series by Sarah, she uses the concept of repetition with slight variation to create fiber based works that hold their own as single works but displayed together form a visual melody.

Sarah currently lives and works in Washington DC. She is active in the art community through the District of Columbia Art Center (DCAC),
nationally through the New York based National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), and internationally through the UK based Society for Embroidered Work (S.E.W.). Currently, she is enrolled in the Royal School of Needlework’s Certificate & Diploma program and was a member of the 2019 – 2020 DCAC Sparkplug cohort. Most recently, she successfully presented an independent solo exhibition of her most recent series The Topologicals at Studio 1469 in Washington DC and was one of the artists in Distinct Studios first group exhibition in 2022, Before, During, After at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virgina.

In the Studio

Photo Credit: Oliva Weise

By Mary Higgins|2022-07-11T22:41:30+00:00July 11, 2022|