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Lee JaeSam
 I paint scenes of reflections of the moonlight on the trees, forest, and waterfall. The forest encompasses the microscopic world seen through the microscope and the macroscopic world seen through the telescope. It also holds the order of the great universe where plant life and animal life coexist. It is a cyclic space, where organisms die and come to life, as it embraces the sky and the earth with water, air and sunlight
Charcoal is coal made by burning wood but it's a material that feels very new to me. After the wood burns all day in an enclosed charcoal kiln in the absence of air, it transforms into a blackened figure before it turns into ashes, the ‘sarira’ of the soul, the last remnant left behind by the forest. While the candlelight ignites itself to emit light, the wood burns into charcoal, a representation of its soul reincarnated throughtheimagesofthewoods.
The black color of the charcoal is not a color but exists as a black space. What I observe is not the object itself but the inner image in between the objects which give formation to silence, and the eroded landscape in the 'unexplored' present in the midst of the dark spaces within the depth of the forest.
The woods and trees stretch out in the deep black spaces but the moonlight is revealed as a mystical ‘being’, wanting the sound of its moonlight, its energy and scent to be painted with charcoal.
And I hope that my mind and soul are reflected off the dust of the charcoal piece rubbing off the surface of the drawing.
- Lee Jaesam on Charcoal. |