Heart and Seoul

I fell in love with you, Korea-madlee the way a fool would do. Without reservation. I followed that feeling in my body and not my head. It started with seeing the work of Do So Huh at the Seattle Art Museum. Then a film on Chunghie Lee and Pogaji. Next, the Kyong Ae Cho show at the Belger during the SDA Conference in Kansas City, along with (render me speechless) Dorothy Caldwell-not exactly Korean but as good as! Then the Ballpoint Pen Abstractions of Il Lee at the San Jose Museum. Most recently in Sculpture Magazine, I saw the work of Jayho Lee. A few years back, Kim and I visited the new Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Love fest on everything, until we got to the exhibition on Korea. It was as if Korea had some je ne sais quois-steroids? I dunno, but I got it and I got it bad for pretty much anything Korean: the aesthetic, the clothes, the people, and the kim chi, which I could eat 3x a day-because you know it's always about the food!
Wendy, my business partner at WaxWorks, I discovered early on, adopted 3 Korean kids, one who currently lives in Seoul. Last year, at the Encaustic Conference in Boston, Catherine Nash gives me the Rx that I should join the IAPMA. It turns out that they will have their International Congress in Wonju in September of 2010. Ok, so I'm goin'. Then last month, Wendy found some great fares on Singapore Air, which happens to be a magnificent airline. So here we are. So those of you asking Why Korea-this is my answer. Something at a cellular lever called to me via the voice of artists. There isn't anything a better than communicating to one another through our creativity. Kim saw a t shirt yesterday that read Korea the best kept secret in Asia.