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.