| Since then I was submitted at the National art Exhibition for three successive years, held more exhibitions of my own, and come to know several outstanding persons and artists, among whom were Kim Kee-chang(Woon Bo) and his wife, Park Lae-yun (Woo Hyang), Chang Woo-sang (Mok Bool) and his wife, Lee Shin-ja. The latter two had a great influence on my work. Many of my pupils, including Kim Young-ho (Mrs. Min Kwan–shik) at Holston Girl's High School helped me every time I held an exhibition, and I am ever grateful to them.
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As a housewife and mother of four children I could not help but be sorry that I had sometimes neglected my household affairs. But, all my children have grown up decently. I am proud of them and am ever grateful. My second child, Oh, Soon-hee, took fiber art as her major after me, and at the time I had my second exhibition, Soon-hee, who was a senior in the College of Art at Ewha Womans University, joined with me for the exhibition. It turned out to be joint-exhibit of mother and daughter. |
It was a memorable occasion since I meant to show my daughter the whole process of doing our works of art. We had about thirty pieces altogether in the exhibit, in which I tried to show ways that classical techniques fuse into the creation of art as well as to show the difference between the two generations---of the elder and younger. After the exhibit, Soon-hee went to America to study at Indianan University, then taught as an assistant professor at Auburn University a while, went to France to continue her work, and in now teaching at Duk-Sung Women’s University. Twelve years after we had our first joint-show, we planned our second exhibition this time in Paris, where Soon-hee was studying. We were greeted with applause by many artists and our fellow countrymen who were in Paris; the former must have been moved by our traditional beauty which was new to them, and the latter by the charms of their native land which they must have missed in the alien land. Among the professors of arts whom I met in Paris, professor Dupeux was known as a frog collector. I embroidered frogs and gave the work to professor Dupeux as my gift.
After the exhibition in Paris, I took time travel around in France. The weather in Paris was quite capricious, but the beauty of sunbeams seen through the fresh and fragrant trees when the clouds were cleared off in the sky, imprinted itself deep in my heart. I wanted to reproduce the scene in my work. After Paris, I had an exhibition in Maryland, U.S.A. I had already been there a few times visiting friends in Washington D.C. People who came to my exhibition asked if they might purchase some of my works. I declined their offer, for I thought that those pieces were not articles to be exchanged with money or other things.
When I came back from my trip, I resumed to take Kayakum (a Korean Harp) lesson, which I had started when I was young. I thought there was something in common between Kayakun and embroidery. The one has lamentable sobs in its tone; whereas, the other has lustrous but controlled quietitude in its hues. Could they be the apparitions of Buddhistic life cycles, I wondered---one emerging to be a flower, the other a ripping fountain. |
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