I've always been interested in the studio spaces of other artists.  Its where ideas are brought to life and lately, I've been wanting to develop my own studio.  I've for the most part of my artistic life, made video art work that dealt with collaging of found footage.  But more recently, I've been shooting a lot more and because of my developing painting and drawing work, I'm feeling quite cramped in my current situation.

Paul Klein and information absorbtion.

I have been on a binge to be constructive and looking for useful material anywhere possible.  Youtube seems like a great place to start so I type "artistic process" in the search.  The first video is of Ryan Mcginness and his creative process.  The video soon ends and automatically starts a video called "Tracey Emin: What Artists do all day."  Interesting, so I watch both parts 1 and 2.  Then a suggested video pops up on the side.  "Paul Klein on how to succeed as an artist." Never really keen on self-help and the likes but what harm could it do.  Best 40mins spent.  And I got around to follow one of his advice which was to write an artist statement, but to remember that you can write a new artist statement the next month, the next day or the next minute if you want to.  The artist statement can be an on-going process, but just write one.  And so I did, and here I will share it...

(please remember that this is the first draft, very rough and haven't been checked over...I am also very self-conscious, thank you)

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

Bo Lee, is a visual artist with an emphasis in video.  

I have always wanted to make movies.  I thought I was going to become a hollywood director and be commercially successful by 28.  I was always attracted to the story and felt that I had plenty of stories to tell.  I went to art school and continued my path to becoming a film director.  I worked as an editor for commercials and films but soon quit to write a screenplay.  During this time, I had made a bunch of films and had them up on a website.  I began to receive calls about showing my work.  But they were never from film festivals or people interested in narrative work but from galleries and curators.  In a sense, my work always belonged to the video art world.  I’ve always wanted to make feature length films but I guess I was better at making abstract, short, films that sometimes looped and sometimes didn’t.  In 2006, I began to take my video art more seriously.  I saw myself drifting from the narrative structure and experimenting more with visual aesthetics and form.  

My studio work was side-tracked a bit by marriage, children and needing to make rent and soon found myself in South Korea.  In Korea, I had found a renewed sense in my work and began developing my skills.  Painting, wood-working, welding and began playing with different materials and resources.  I had a furniture business that allowed me to develop my social and salesmanship skills which in turn helped me become a more balanced artist in terms of knowing how to market the work that I was creating and realizing that making artwork was only a small portion of the artist that I wanted to become.  I began to make paintings, drawings, sculptures but ultimately, thinks all of that is a way to develop my video work.  

I think in terms of space and time and story is still important to me.  When I paint or draw, I try to develop my other senses.  I try to block out the time aspect because its no longer relevant in painting.  I think more in terms of composition, techniques and movement.  I’m more attracted to shapes and forms.  I may or may not want to make a statement but in video, I almost always want to say something.  I’ve always trained myself to think that way, so that the videos serve a purpose outside of just plain visuals.  My paintings and drawings are a bit different.  Maybe because I’ve only been utilizing the canvas for a lot less of a period, but I’m more stable when I begin to work with a painting.  I’m more at peace and allow myself to act differently.  And its because of this contradiction almost that intrigues me about me.  I think we inherently have contradictions that we try to justify or change but never acknowledge those contradictions and allow it to just be.  I can’t sell my videos nor do I want to.  I would rather play them for free and hope that someone will see it and get some sort of reaction out of them.  My paintings, drawings and sculptures I want to make money from.  I want to be accepted in the art market.  I want to be part of its culture and draw inspiration from them.  

In five years, I want to have sold enough paintings and artwork to be able to call myself a professional.  I want to have several shows, group or solo and some fair exposure.  I want to be able to do this to allow freedom for my videos to be shown.  

In ten years, I want to be able to make or already have made a feature length film.

I want to think in terms of projects, themes and exhibition ideas.  I want to see my body of work, complimenting each other.  Everything is in sync.  The timing and rhythm.  

Goldmine Studios and the start of something new

We've all started blogs before and I am no exception.  I've started and closed many blogs; topics ranging from cinema to things that make me angry but this time I tell myself it will be different.  I've changed my habits over the years and learned how to focus.  Studied the masters before me and have considered not even starting a new blog.  But....  I have thought long and hard and have decided to start a new blog and link it to our site for a new gallery space we have opened up.  

Background information:

I am Bo Lee.  I am a video artist.  I went to Pratt Institute.  For the past five years, I have been in South Korea and recently opened up a gallery space, calling it Goldmine Studios.  (www.goldmine-studios.com)  The mission of this gallery space is to support emerging and new artists and promote creative growth locally.  

Reason for this blog:

I know there are plenty of blogs on art criticism.  I know there are plenty of blogs with artist's thoughts on a particular show or exhibition.  I'm not going to say this blog will be any different, but what I can say is that I hope the readers will come along with me on this ride.  I've started something new and I'm going to continue down this path for the forceable future.  There will be obstacles and many ups and downs but in the end, all I want is to learn, grow and hopefully record the information I collect.