Thesis Book by Aehee Shin

Walking My Path in

Art Aehee Shin

Walking My Path in

Art Aehee Shin

One cannot exist as a human being separated from others but must seek interconnectedness. I believe that the ultimate purpose of one’s existence is to forge genuine relationships with others--which is love.

Contents CHAPTER 1

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Prologue

CHAPTER 2

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Red String

CHAPTER 3

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Lina’ s Crayons

CHAPTER 4

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THESIS Inspiration

CHAPTER 5

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THESIS Process

CHAPTER 6

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THESIS Dear One

CHAPTER 7

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THesis Show

CHAPTER 8

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What is Next?

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Prologue

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My Childhood Z My past made me who I am today and it greatly influenced on what I’m making.

I was born in the early spring in north-central Oklahoma. I returned to South Korea with my parents when I was three years old. Unlike the name of my birthplace, Stillwater, I have been very energetic and adventurous ever since I was little. My curiosity prompted me to take risk and also caused me to discover the mysterious world, like life after death, the universe, and magical things.

I was greatly influenced by my family as I grew up. In the boring afternoons, my sister and I used to draw characters from our imagination.

We spoke the words as if the characters are saying their’ lines and spontaneously made up a story as we went along.

My mom who majored in art education, decorated our house with a number of cloisonné dishes, prints, and paintings and encouraged me to attend after-school art programs. I was exposed to literature as well because my father is an expert in Shakespeare and we often went to theaters to see plays. I was completely overwhelmed by seeing the splendid theatrical sceneries and delicate emotional expressions of the actors and actresses in real life.

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All of these experiences made me want to capture my own vivid theatrical world in creative ways. I started to build miniature stages, movable puppets, and props by using a variety of materials such as wood, clay, foam board, felt, paper, and found objects to make a tactile body of work. I challenged myself to try different artistic forms, such as interactive installation, craft, and stop-motion animation. I ended up finding myself as a visual storyteller mainly focusing on producing children’s picture books.

In my narrative work, characters become aware of their true selves through friendships with other characters. I believe that the ultimate purpose of one’s existence is to forge genuine relationships with others-which is love. My artistic mission is to visualize diverse forms of love between different characters.

I place symbolic elements in my fictional stories. These symbolic elements trigger magical happenings and connect one character to the other in order to fill the void in each other. A red string signifies the thread of fate. By following a red string tied to his pinkie, a clown finds his faithful connection to another being. A little girl bored at home uses crayons to create fantasy worlds and the warm family of her dreams.

The world is full of magical and mysterious events which invite the creation of meaning from everyday objects. I want viewers to journey through my imaginary worlds to find connection to their own personal memories and experiences.

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Red String 2011

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Z “An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.”

-An ancient Chinese belief

Since my early years, My family and I moved all over the place for educational purposes and my father’s research. As soon as I became attached to people around me, I had to leave them and adapt myself to new surroundings again. I grew used to frequent change in my life and long distance relationships. At the bottom of my heart, however, I have been seeking the final destination of my life where I can fit in intrinsically, and I crave for the everlasting relationships.

As I met many people in different places, I became interested in the idea of destiny, which has a significant meaning in human relationships. In the stages of life, it is inevitable to connect oneself with other characters, and grow the value of one’s life through these relationships.

Initially, Red String was a stop-motion animation, and it ended up being published as a children’s picture book in Korea. A clown and a mannequin are connected at the heart and they are destined to be together at the end of the story.

I nearly felt like I had a painful birth until it was completed. But my persevering efforts are rewarded whenever I hear comments from parents that their children love to read this book over and over again.

A mother wrote a review that she was reading the book for her baby with tearful eyes, because she was reminded of her experience as related to the story. After I received these comments, I envisioned making long-lasting picture books that could communicate through the hearts of readers at all ages and have different meanings to individual readers.

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’ Lina s Crayons 2013

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During a year long leave of absence from school, I worked on my second picture book titled Lina’s Crayons. The story is based on my childhood experiences and imagination. Whenever I got bored, I used to doodle my imaginary world on empty walls, and I would imagine all my drawings coming alive out of the wall and playing with me .This picture book implies the value of children’s doodles as a means to project their genuine desire and love.

It was a story that I developed in my junior class, and a boy and a red pencil appear in the story. I illustrated some spreads with black and red pencils and finished the first dummy book version.

The dummy book became a stepping stone to make the second book contract, but I had to reconsider the story, concept, and technique as I was working with two editors. I was open to the their professional suggestions based on their knowledge of child’s perspective.

This time, I pushed myself more to create multiple sets and figures for each scene. Especially, I put much effort into varying Lina’s facial expressions in order to capture the frank feelings of a child through Lina.

My intention was to make readers to identify their own childhood with Lina’s adventure and take a journey through her imagination with real excitement.

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Workshop Since my first book was published, I’ve had great chances to run workshops in few different institutions like an elementary school, a public library, and book festivals. I started by showing the stop-motion animation or dummy sketches to tell the story, and made related paper toy characters with the kids. Through this direct interaction with the children and their parents, I became strongly motivated by their feedback and encouragement. I sincerely wanted to make more picture books that will lead to better communication with young readers.

Booksori Festival (2012)

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THESIS

Inspiration

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Why

Children’ s Picture Book?

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“Picture books play in our emotional, psychological, social, and aesthetic development. It is a way of discovering a whole other world in the picture.”

- R. Klanten and H. Hellige

These days, people say that the publishing industry is severely declining. However, I believe that picture books are valuable pieces regardless of the changeable market condition. Picture books are the first art pieces that children become familiar with, so they can have a huge impact on their minds. Therefore, children’s book illustrators have big responsibilities to creatively and effectively communicate to the children and lead them to positive directions.

As I was working on a couple of children books and running several workshops with children, I realized that the visual part of the picture books has a very important role to aid children in developing their understandings of the story or concept. While observing children’s reactions in the workshops, I found that children put more attention to visual images like facial expressions or small details of characters rather than written texts. They focused on the characters’ emotions interacting with facial expressions and body gestures. From those experiences, I firmly decided to engage in the field of visual communication and ultimately contribute to children’s emotional growth.

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A Tweet for You (2011)

It is necessary to reevaluate symbols that I have been using constantly in my previous work because those symbolic images must be derived from my personal integrity and become the best source to create new works. This practice is what we called ‘Image Harvest.’

‘A Tweet for You’ is a limited edition, hand-sewn bird, made with found fabric. Each of these birds holds a message written by the owner in its clothespin beak. It is nicely placed in a package and given to a loved person, so it can be cherished for a long time. Through this product I intend to enhance the value of the analogue communication between people.

For my thesis, I plan to produce a picture book, which promotes the ‘A Tweet for You’ brand and I intend to use narrative to imprint the product’s concept of sharing messages on readers. At the Art Market, it was difficult to convey the main purpose of this brand to onlookers. This has motivated me to create an appealing story that can gain the attention of people and effectively portray the purpose and value of the brand. By applying a storytelling strategy, I expect to stress a friendly ‘kidult’ image and enhance the originality of the brand.

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Image Harvest It is necessary to reevaluate symbols that I have been using constantly in my previous work because those symbolic images must be derived from my personal integrity and become the best source to create new works. This practice is what we called ‘Image Harvest.’

L’if ’e (2006) This is my very first installation piece and it has been the best motivation for me since I seriously started doing art. This piece portrays a path of life surrounded by a lot of choices, and there is a door to the final destination. I harvested the symbol of the heart with an inner core space.

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Self Portrait (2009) I illustrated my anxiety after I had a injury on my right thumb. The figure covers her chest as if she’s protecting her heart. I wanted to say that even though my physical body is damaged, my soul will not be hurt.

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The Nest (2010) After I came back to Korea, I confronted a big transition in relationships with my family and the weird thing is I didn’t feel at home in my hometown. Then I asked myself, where is a true home for me to have a peaceful rest? Again, I found out I used a heart shape with an inner space.

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I found that the inner space of the heart is a major theme in my works. I’ve been using natural tree shapes a lot as well. I realized that I’ve been longing for true rest for a long time. My experiences and feelings are embedded in most of my narrative works.

Bird character Sharing messages + Inner space of heart Tree shapes True rest Personal experiences and feelings

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Other Reference Z “Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

- The Little Prince

The Little Prince (1943)

written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Little Prince is the primary model book to me. The story tells different messages to me whenever I revisit it. I want to create a picture book in which its value lasts for a long time no matter if trend rapidly changes.

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Red Muffler (2012) written & illustrated by Mo Design Group This book tells a hopeful story about the friendship between Antarctic crew and baby penguins. I love their experimental approach in using a variety of media. As I watched the making video, I was amazed by their exquisite craftsmanship and documentation.

Jangsutang Fairy (2013)

Cloud Bread (2010)

written & illustrated by Heena, Baek

written & illustrated by Heena, Baek

The story is about a little girl having a fun time with a granny fairy who lives in the Longevity sauna bath. The facial expressions and gestures are very delicate and lively! The sense of space is amazingly dramatic.

Two Kittens fly in the sky when they eat the bread in which its dough is mixed with a cloud. The book incorporates tactile media like paper cut characters and 3D sets with digital effects.

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THESIS Process

Story making Character sketches 3D modeling Digital working

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Story Making Original story I created a story for the picture book ‘A Tweet for You’, which is aimed at five to nine year old kids.

The story starts off with a big tree and a little boy who lives inside of the tree’s hair.

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Trial & error I drew a number of dummy sketches as I had been figuring out the storyline, especially the beginning and the ending parts. I struggled too hard to make the story literally self-explanatory, meet everyone’s opinions, and include two different messages; ‘creation and love’ and ‘sharing messages’.

1. Children’ s perspective The story needs to be logical because children tend to notice details and ask questions about some parts that do not make sense. So I had to make a thoughtful consideration of how children will feel confused by the story.

2. Others opinions I showed the dummy books to many people around me, and everyone gave me different feedback.

I strived to accept everyone’s opinion to make a perfect story. At one point, I was not able to focus on what I was trying to say through the story.

3. Two different messages I could not exclude the idea of ‘A Tweet for You’ even though I knew that the idea makes the story complicated and limited. The idea was so fixed in my mind that I just tried to make a nice link between the tree and puppet part, and the sharing message part.

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Then the crucial moment had arrived when two guest critics visited to see our thesis progress. They scathingly said that the story is unnecessarily long and complicated and half of the dummy sketches should be cut off. At first, I felt like all my effort had gone up in smoke. Since then, I’ve been asking myself, ‘Am I making a story from my heart or for catering to other people?’ I ended up deleting the idea of sharing messages, having little importance in the birds’ characters, and focusing on the relationship between the creator, a tree, and the creature, a puppet.

As a 3D illustrator, it was a big challenge to draw a bunch of dummy sketches and overall I was able to develop my drawing skill. When I was in progress with the final dummy sketches, many people responded well to my intuitive style of drawing. I felt as if I was finding a new treasure in myself. This time, I redrew the dummy sketches as tight as possible with pencil in order to have another option in terms of style.

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Final story A tree awakened to the warmth of early spring. Every creature has its own match, but the tree is the only one feeling lonely. So, the tree took a wooden piece out of his bark and made a little wooden puppet.

He placed the puppet nicely in his hole where the piece was taken out. Soon after the puppet was alive!

The tree gave her a flowery dress and they danced together beautifully. In summer, she jumped and slid through the tree’s green leaves. When it showered, they played by splashing water in the puddles. In autumn, the tree and puppet invited animal friends to their colorful home. That night, everyone gathered on top of the tree’s branches, and had a joyful time in the moonlight. After the party was over, the puppet and the animal friends went into the forest leaving the tree alone. While the tree was waiting for her to come back, the puppet forgot about the tree and enjoyed the time with her new friends in the forest. As winter was upon the forest, the animal friends went back to their home to have a winter sleep. The puppet searched for her own nest as well, but none of them was fit for her. She felt cold and worn out in middle of the snowy winter. At that time, a herd of bird flew around her and delivered the warmth of the tree.

Beating off the deep snow, the puppet returned to her own home where the tree already was asleep. She cleaned the snow off the tree, and hugged him tightly. She stumbled inside the tree’s hole and fell into a deep and peaceful slumber.

In this story, love is the power that infuses life into a wooden piece and the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. This narrative is a metaphorical mirror of my life identifying myself with the puppet.

There was a time when I lost my self-esteem and wandered through chaos, but eventually I realized that I have to embrace my true self and be grateful for just the way I’m created.

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Dummy sketches

Title page 1

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Step 2.

Character Sketches The initial step was to draw characters to get the feel of 3D figures. I tried to roughly capture the puppet’s cheerful personality and the tree’s sincere characteristics, and, as I made the solid figures with different materials, I kept modifying the characters’ shapes until I was satisfied.

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Step 3.

3D Modeling I made 3D figures by using materials capable of being reshaped, such as non-dryable porcelain clay for the tree, wire and wooden parts for the puppet, and wire, a clothpin, and stitched felt fabric for the bird.

Each animal character is made with polymer clay and painted with acrylic paint after it was baked.

At first, I thought of a quiet and gentle image of the tree looking like an old grandpa. I made a purple-brownish tree with a droopy face and two branches sending forth many twigs. The face has a three-dimensional look with delicate emotion, but the color and shape of the tree looked a bit spooky and the sharp point of the branches seemed threatening. So I simplified the tree shape into a geometric style with few branches. I intended not to make a lip on the tree, because I wanted to keep its image silently standing by the puppet like parents give special patience, unconditional love and attention to their child.

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In contrast to the tree, the puppet was supposed to look fresh and full of energy like an young child. She is in the presence of the tree’s love, but the curious puppet has a desire to go to outside world. I made hot pink fluffy hair using wool felt to accentuate her lively disposition.

A flock of birds hovers around the tree and the puppet like “little spirits”, and nurtures their budding friendship.

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Step 4.

Digital Working Previously I made sets and figures three dimensionally and took photos of actual scenes. I had problem with storing all my sets and figures since I did not have my own warehouse. Beside, it would take too much time to handcraft all the detailed natural elements like blowing leaves for every scene. I tried to find a way to effectively express the scenes and I finally adopted a digital synthesis method to compensate for the defect of my original style. I took photos of each 3D figure, selected the best one, cropped the outline of each figure with photoshop tools, placed these cropped figures in their right position in one picture, added digitally generated leaves, faces, textures, and shadows, and adjusted brightness and darkness of the figures to pretend they are placed in a real space. I tried very hard to figure out a new way of melting my handcraft skill and digital techniques in order to see how these contrasting techniques work perfectly together.

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Dear One 2014

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The final result was different from my initial plan. I expected to emphasize a tactile sensibility, but the final work had more of graphic feel to it, almost like 3D animation. In the middle of working, I realized that there is limitation in digital techniques in depicting the sense of natural space and light. Moreover, it took a long time to follow the steps and compose photographed images on the computer.

Throughout the whole precess, however, I was able to gain a better understanding of space, which consist of light, shadow, and cohesive color tone. It was refreshing and a totally new learning experience for me. I believe that this experience will become my asset in developing my three dimensional work in the future.

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THESIS Show

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Overall learning experiences Be true to Myself What I believe is what I see. Trust in what my heart says and reveal it through my work.

Simple is better Avoid putting too many messages and characters into one story. The story should have a clear flow so that the readers could follow through it.

Don’ t be limited to one medium I used to stick to making 3D sets and figures, but recently I found that I have potential in drawing. Don’t be restricted by one style but try other media as much as possible. Who knows? I might find more natural abilities in myself, and incorporate all the found abilities to make more creative art works.

Enjoy the process of making Although I was not satisfied with the final result, I tried to keep patient and solve the problems to the very end. It is a painful moment but ultimately it is a rewarding process. Life is full of learning experiences with many trials and errors. I should not be afraid of failure and keep exploring out of my comfort zone.

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What is next?

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Z “Be brave enough to live creatively. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can only get there by hard work, by risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful: Yourself.”

- Alan Alda (1936 - ) 1. Continuing 3D work l Developing pencil drawing technique I will eventually move to Alabama after get married in this summer and have my own studio there. Once I settle down in the new environment, I will continue to make a variety of personal works ranging from 2D work like drawing and painting to 3D work like craft and clay modeling. I will explore my intuition and freely radiate my creative energy in many different artistic forms.

2. Large scale installation work Since 2006 when I made my first installation piece, I had always set my heart on making large scale installation piece. I will start making it for self-contentment and see how I could promote these installation pieces to the art world.

3. Dear One stop-motion animation Animating the story of Dear One is what I want to potentially produce. The moving image will make the story aesthetically vivid and cheerful, and effectively convey the characters’ feelings through their facial expressions and background music. This animation will be uploaded to Youtube to share all over the world.

4. Publishing picture books I will try communicating with the Korean publisher to publish foreign language editions of Red String and Lina’s Crayons. The priority is to find the right agent in America. Along with that, I will try to promote my two dummy books, Dear One and Huchoo, Where are You, to many American publishers located in New York and the Southern States such as Greenwillow Books, Clarion Books, Viking Children’s books, Simon & Schuster Books, and Sleeping Bear Press.

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Huchoo, Where Are You? (2013)

This is a story about a tiny dog who is made of powdered black pepper and she travels across a boy’s body.

The story reflects my own memory of old days with my dog named Huchoo. (*Huchoo means black pepper in Korean) I tried to depict an intimate relationship between Huchoo and the boy by visualizing the tiny dog running on the boy’s body and simulating the boy’s sense as if they are playing hide and seek. The dog represents the boy’s lingering memory of his old pet. The memory is so fragile that it is supposed to disappear but it suddenly comes to his mind again. I wanted the readers, especially children, to be able to handle the feeling of loss. Rather than becoming obsessed by the feeling of loss, it is better to appreciate the good time we had with a pet.

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5. Teaching Before I came to Maryland, I had a chance to teach little kids in a nursery in Korea and this experience is embedded in my memory vividly.I was amazed by the kids’ honest expressions reflected from their feelings and memories and became aware of how art is a window to one’s own heart. Since then, I wish to be an art educator who cares about the students’ emotional struggle and fills the void with artistic inspiration and creativity.

Throughout my GTI experiences, again I realized that I feel worthwhile listening to the students’ worries and helping the students to find their own right direction. The workshop experiences also convinced me that I have a great aspiration for sharing my idea and communicating with the children.

For now, I am willing to take any kinds of teaching positions like small workshops at Lowe Mill Art center, part-time teaching at the Birmingham Museum of Art, and full-time teaching at private elementary schools. I’m not qualified to teach at public elementary school but I might try earning a MAT certificate if it is necessary in the future. I would love to engage in higher education at community colleges and universities. If I am established in teaching and able to make my own course, I want to teach narrative art, especially picture book illustration.

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6. Competitions l Events l Associations Occasionally I will attend related conferences and fairs to present my work and get reviews from the children’s literature professionals like art directors, editors, and agents from children’s book publishing. I will make a steady effort to participate in various picture book related contests.

I list below various competitions, events, and institutions that I am particularly interested in.

Call for entries Communication Arts competition Silent Book contest Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards The Golden Kite Award Illustrarte Biennial of children’s book Nami Book Illustrator competition Los Angeles Book Festival entry New York Book Festival entry Bologna Children’s book fair

Festivals & Events Booksori Festival Alabama Book Festival Festival of Children’s Literature, Birmingham Lowe Mill Workshops, Shows, and Events South Alabama Film Festival Sidewalk Film Festival Alabama Shakespeare Festival Alabama Theatre

Associations & Institutions SCBWI Society of Illustrators Birmingham Art Association North East Alabama Craftsman Association Huntsville Art League Birmingham Museum of Art Huntsville Museum of Art

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The world is a big stage where a number of different characters are placed together.