16th July, 2011 , Artist Hye-ja Moon
*Hye-ja Moon’s Art- Gap Opening Technique
*There is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston near Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where I studied painting. I used to drop by the place and take a close observation of such great art works as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock etc. In case of Cezanne, many lines of the first layer of paint were seen under the brush strokes in landscapes or figure paintings, which looked more confident and refined. The un-painted parts on the first layer of paint deprived the works of stuffiness and offered them to look natural. Especially, in one of his big sized figure paintings, a little dark beige was painted first and the figure was painted with refined and inexorable brush strokes on it. The ground color oozing among the brush strokes turned the stuffiness that a big-sized oil painting might bring about into the easiness. In his works there was another painting sized 162.2X130.3cm there, which I rarely remembered the title of it. Cezanne left the ground color about the feet of the figure in the painting. And I couldn’t take my eyes off the parts of the painting. Although I wasn’t interested in figurative paintings, I’d like to apply the lingering imagery of the gap openings among the brush strokes into my abstract paintings.
*In the mean while Edie Read, a professor of Massachusetts College of Art and Design taught me to paint a color of light first and leave the first layer of paint not covering second layer of paint any more where I want to express the shining parts. Then she said that the shining parts would show the same. I was deeply impressed and learnt a way of applying the lingering imagery of the gap openings into my works.
*After years that fallowed my trials and experiments offered a technique of my own. I always make desperate efforts to leave uniform narrow gap openings over a canvas. I focus my mind on the work shouting to myself, “The whole is influenced by the parts”. It is a time consuming and back breaking task. However, I know that all the labor has great consequences. Now, I have established a unique technique of my own by proficiently leaving narrow gap openings through which the ground color of bright yellow could shine. I lay emphasis on differentiation from the works of anyone else in making aperture effect through a highly unique technique. To obtain concentration required when applying the gap opening technique on to my art work, I have been training meditation and yoga for half an hour every evening for a long time.
*The bright color of light shone through the gap openings held sway over its complementary color or dark colors. Some of them have an effect of light shone through a crack in the window in a dark room. I wanted to establish an abstract painting technique of making uniformly narrow gap openings over a canvas. To do that I tensely make strokes with a brush as if musical performers would do on a stage in order not to make a minute mistake.
*Music is the main theme of my art work, and my gap opening technique surely serves as the breath of a conductor who brings all the musical players in an orchestra together. Therefore, this technique will be developing in accordance to my own breath.
*Artist Hye-ja Moon, 16 July 2011