나름대로 꽃

매미소리가 들린다. 올여름 첫 울음도 아닐 텐데 입추 말복 다 지난 오늘에야 들려오니 마음이 분주하고 산만하여 징징대는 울음조차도 듣지 못했나보다.
귀 여겨 듣지 않으면 눈 여겨 보지 않으면 들리지 않고 보이지 않는 것들이 많다. 나태주 시인의 ‘풀꽃’처럼 자세히 봐야, 오래봐야 예쁘고 사랑스러운 것들이 많다. 계절 따라 지역에 따라 고도에 따라 그 들이 가진 특성을 드러내고 눈부신 조화를 이루며 꽃들은 피고진다. 크면 큰대로 작으면 작은 대로  여러 모양과 색깔로 – 나름대로 꽃 – 언제 어느 곳에 피어있어도 곱다.
한국화를 전공한 작가로 살아가면서 전전긍긍하며 버리지 못하는 한지와 먹은 나의 작업에서 중요한 비중을 차지한다. 2합이나 3합의 장지를 사용하는데 배면(背面)을 이용하여 작업하기에 적당하다. 홑지는 물감을 머금을 겨를 없이 앞면의 붓질이 그대로 뒷면에 전해지지만  2합이나 3합은 물감이 더러는 묻어나오고 더러는 숨어있어서 재미있다. 여러 차례 그리고 덧칠한 배면의 바탕은 여백을 강조하는 동양화에서 하늘이 되기도 하고 땅이 되고 물이 되는 본질과 크게 다르지 않다. 꽃밭이 되어주는 바탕위에 표현해내고자 하는 화초들은 형태가 생략되거나 강조되어 화면을 지탱한다. 
먹의 운용은 동양화의 근간이 되고 화력(畵歷)과 비례하여 작품의 완성도를 높여준다. 그러나 나의 작업에서는 전통적인 표현기법을 바탕으로 하되 현대적인 요소를 접목시켜서 효과를 극대화하고자 하였다.  발묵(潑墨)의 느낌은 화초의 경계를 목탄과 파스텔 콘테 등으로 문질러 번져나가는 효과와 부드러움을 유지하고 있다. 농담(濃淡)으로 질감이나 색깔을 표현하는 방식에서 벗어나 농묵(濃墨)으로 형태를 잡아가며 먹을 올리지만 적묵(積墨)법으로는 한계가 있어서 분채(粉彩)를 섞어가며 농(濃)을 더하였다. 아름다움을 상징하는 꽃의 미묘한 형태나 다채로운 색채가 모노톤으로 무겁게 화면을 지배하지만 꽃을 느끼기에는 모자람이 없다.
다양한 재료와 기법으로 한층 자유로워진 한국화의 탈장르를 외치는 작가들 속에서  오늘도 지필묵을 옆에 두고 한국화의 새로운 지평을 꿈꾼다.
                                                     햇살이 가득한 작업실에서    김현숙

Flowers, though

I hear the sound of cicadas. That must not be the first one this summer. But I just hear their crying today after the last of the three hot days of summer and the initial day of autumn are all passed. While bustling and rambling, my ears could not hear the whining sounds of cicadas.
There are many things that we cannot hear or see unless we listen and watch attentively. As Na, Tae-Ju expressed in his poem, ‘Wild flowers,’ we notice the beauty and loveliness in many things only when we look at them attentively and in detail.
Wild flowers show their unique characteristics upon change of seasons, depending on the area and altitude of where they grow. They bloom and wither in a shining harmony with nature. Some grow big and others are small. They grow in various shapes and colors while mingling with each other. Yet, each of them is proud of being a flower. No matter where and when they bloom, they look pretty and beautiful.
As a Korean painting artist, Hanji Korean traditional paper and ink stick are crucial to my artwork. I have used them with obstinacy in my entire career. I prefer two or three-layered long paper because I can use the back-side of the paper. The single-layered paper is too thin and the ink permeates immediately when drawing on the front side of it. The shapes drawn by brush strokes on the front side are totally shown on the back side when using a single-layered paper. But two or three-layered Hanji paper makes an interesting result especially with a naturally textured surface. The ink gets smeared in some areas and sometimes, permeated in other areas. As a result, the shapes shown on the back side of paper look different from the ones originally drawn on the front side, as if some parts of the shapes are hiding or broken.
The blank space on the back side is painted with multiple layers of colors. Traditional Oriental paintings emphasize blank spaces as they signify the sky or the ground or water. In essence, filling the blank space with colors is not so different from the traditional way of __EXPRESSION__. In my artwork, the background space is a flower garden. The flowering plants in the garden are drawn in an abridged or emphasized shape. They are the elements that sustain the screen.
The methods and techniques of how to use ink are the foundation of Oriental paintings. In proportion to one’s painting career, they are also the key factors to enhance the artistic completeness of painting. Such traditional techniques are also the basics of my artwork. However, I also add a modern twist to the traditional methods in order to maximize the effect from both traditional and modern ways. The outlines of flower plants are drawn by rubbing charcoal and pastel crayons to maintain and extend the impression of running colors and softness expressed through the traditional spread of ink technique. To express textures and colors, I adopted a technique beyond the gradation of light and shade. I used a dark tone of ink to draw shapes and over-coat them accumulatively with the same ink. But ink is not enough to express the dark tone. So, I mixed natural color pigments to express a deeper tone of gradation. Flowers are the symbol of the beauty. Despite a somewhat heavy impression due to the seemingly dominating monotone coloring, viewers will find nothing short to feel and enjoy the fine beauty, delicate shapes, and various colors of flowers in my flowers.
Korean painting has become a lot freer as the genre now adopts various materials and techniques. Surrounded by artists who insist on adopting cross-genre in Korean painting as well, I dream a new horizon in Korean painting, with paper, brushes and ink stick as my companions.
On a sunny day in my workshop     

 Kim, Hyun Sook