As a child in South Korea I loved to draw and I was a serious student of calligraphy. When I came to the United States at age 16, making art was the one thing that made me happy. No language skills to help me, I was overwhelmed by a completely different culture. While still in High School I enrolled in night classes in drawing at Los Angeles Community College.
By the time I graduated from High School I knew that I wanted to be an artist. I enrolled at the University of Southern California. Upon graduation I packed up and headed east.
I began the MFA program at Parsons School of Design. I chose Parsons because it seemed the most rigorous program I could find. At Parsons, I studied closely with Leland Bell, Larry Rivers, and Paul Resika.
I was very influenced by Leland Bell and I treasured my time at Parsons but I realized that I wanted more from art than objective representation of objects and beautiful colors. I wanted to express my experience as a female, an immigrant, a mother, a fighter for social justice, and an artist in my art. I look upon my works not as the products of a particular artistic process or technique that I have mastered but rather as the artifacts of my life.