A Christmas Message
By Geoffrey Peckham - Director, Tusen Takk Foundation
Jiwon, surrounded by completed painting, applies another layer of Sumi ink to a new work.
Creating art is an exercise in participation with the Divine. She/He/They put the stars in the sky. She/He/They set time in motion. She/He/They separated the light from the darkness, creating all things. It is not strange that all cultures have stories to explain how creation was Divinely made. Artists tap into this deeply-held human understanding, drawing from its well the talents, dedication, care, and concern for creating things that are good. In doing so, they participate in the Divine’s creative nature.
When an artist opens themselves up to this truth, like Jinwon Chang does in his practice of painting, joy is the result. Over the past two and a half months at Tusen Takk, Jinwon has spent hundreds of hours drawing lines on thin mulberry paper and applying layer after layer of washes to create images that defy description. His subject matter treads the boundary where abstraction and reality meet, reflecting both the visible and invisible landscape. The 21 large works he completed in this residency capture much of the essence of this place; the ever-changing color of Lake Michigan, clear, cold night skies illuminated by silver stars that fill the heavens, stretching down to the horizon to meet their reflection in the lake, autumn leaves falling to earth, clouds whitening the sky or showering the landscape with snow, and much more. Jinwon’s absorption of his surroundings here made its way into these works.
Jinwon credits the Divine working through him, through his hands, helping him to make every line, every brushstroke, and for giving him the understanding of when a work is done, or if it needs something more. He works seriously, with an intensity that knows no bounds. For Jinwon, long days of painting turn into late nights of painting. His method allows for such commitment. He works on several paintings at the same time, allowing the studio’s ceiling fan to dry a layer of color applied to each work in progress before the next is added. While those paintings dry, he starts a new one, meticulously drawing a multitude of silver or gold lines on a blank sheet of Korean mulberry paper, the finest in the world. On nearly every work, single lines converge to a center, overlapping where they meet, creating one or more points whose shapes extend outward, signifying connectedness and relationship, how everything in the universe comes from the same source, different but unified. The applications of Sumi ink and diluted acrylic color weave in and over top of the gold/silver lines, giving viewers the opportunity to decipher the works on both their and the painting’s own terms. Meaning and significance are readily apparent in these paintings; in a tangible way, they provide places for people to see beauty, feel joy, and know/sense love.
Jinwon is filled with joy. His smile and laugh are memorable. He is not shy about telling you that he became a Christian. But mostly he uses paint to describe his faith in the saving love that’s freely offered by Christ. Jinwon’s paintings express what cannot be spoken, only felt; what cannot be rationally understood, only received: Love incarnate, love Divine.
Merry Christmas!
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