ARTIST STATEMENT
Three major accidents in her life: At the age of 8, Clara Kim lost her mother. In her grief she lost the ability to speak. During this period, she spent her time befriending animals and small creatures. Playing with these animals provided great joy and comfort, which aided in reclaiming her voice. At the age of 14, she almost drowned when other students threw her into the ocean for fun, unaware that she could not swim. Her hearing was damaged, and one of her ears had to be operated on. Unable to communicate with her peers, she pursued creative outlets such as creating clothing or dolls to combat her solitude. At the age of 50, a careless driver caused a head-on collision which crushed her legs, broke seven ribs, cracked her pelvis bone, collapsed her lung, and damaged her spine. For months while confined to a hospital bed, she constantly envisioned images that expressed her feelings within her mind to distract herself from the pain. These accidents brought misfortune, but instead of being defined by them, she worked to find what she could do despite the hardship. She aims to incorporate these experiences into her art, which depicts various animals in her unique style influenced by both the ancient Korean arts and contemporary western sensibilities.
Life is never fair, and it often creates moments we didn’t expect. But that does not mean it is correct to complain and suffer when you are faced with unfortunate circumstances. There are things we can be grateful for in any situation. You just hold on to your gratitude and smile with all your might. After all, isn’t it much better to live with a smile?
Clara focuses on methods that give her freedom in how one can express herself in her artwork. With various medium techniques such as knife scratching, ink drawing, crayon, pastel, and doodling, alongside concepts such as “dancing lines”, abstract backgrounds and symbolic representation of objects, she wants to entertain herself during the creative process and convey that feeling to viewers of her pieces.
Her work was selected for the Government of Ontario Art Collection and the City of Ottawa Art Collection and Grants from Canada Art Councils and City of Ottawa Art Council. She has participated in Ottawa and Ontario public art and exhibited her work (Toronto, Ontario, Quebec) and Internationally (Switzerland, Korea, USA) including Art museums in Canada and Korea.
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