Flight into Space with Deep Thought
Painter Chang Jeong-ae employs mountains
and birds in her artwork

"Nature itself can be compared to a great proverb. We human sometimes collect very important lessons from those proverbs. Artistic expressions come from nature, but for those artists in pursuit of creative freedom, it is not a space for lodging, but can be a restrictive space they should break out from"poet Bang Jae-ho said.
He said we should not miss the fact that humanistic longing for nature is expressed in art. One of the conditions for longing is distance, separated in long distance. That "far distance" is a creative separation by artists who don't want to settle down in nature.
President-Publisher Elizabeth M. Oh of Newsworld met with painter Chang Jeong-ae at Korea International Art Fair.
Work to move art into an artistic space requires work to cross unseen rivers and viewing art is like looking at artists to move boats by rowing hidden behind creative process.
It is really a significant experience to have a look at painter Chang Jeong-ae's work under the series of "flight."Mountains and birds are the main objectives in her work expressed in silence, but on a closer look, viewers find painter's thoughts expressed in the wings of birds in flight. The artist borrowed simple objects in mountains and birds, but contents in those forms flows over the traditional views. A simple look would reveal that it is a low hill, but a longer look would show that it is a big hill. It is a mountain on a large range that can be climbed easily. That low mountains are like the mother nature, which does a great job of creating lives, but stays calm, not showing off its greatness, I presume. The mountain is so quite that one can't even hear the sounds of falling leaves. The painter shows only the humbleness of the mountain through the dawn breaking over it and parts suggesting sun light. The main theme of the artwork appears to be in both wings of birds and those wings have limited movements. The poet said we should never forget that the life we feel from those birds is due to the movements of their wings.
For birds, wings are their lives and what keep them going.
Birds land on the ground to find something to eat. Flight for freedom is a different story because it is the symbol of dreams and freedom. Freedom is found every where, east, west, south and north. It is for this reason that wings of birds in Chang? paintings move in many directions freely.
Flights of birds also represent human desire to depart from this world full of greed and domination, not dream and co-existence, which bring death and injuries. You feel this although no human beings appear in the paintings. But birds can only live in mountains and birds and mountains know that. I wonder if painter Chang had them close in her work to convey a hopeful message. The painter's strong intentions can be taken from her use of strong colored paints.
Flight paintings describe in a delicate manner, the painter's thoughts making a good use of the earth-bound mountains and birds flying into skies. Chang's work at times appears to be full of empty space, although they are full of subjects with no marginal space.
Her work has no adjectives only nouns, quite and yet powerful, which represent her flight to becoming a great artist.
It may be too hasty, the poet said, but he would like to know what happens after the flight of birds, which is like a great expectation placed on the painter's future success and questions that the painter has for the world.
Viewers get captured by paintings when they stand in front of them to look at them, which is because of the thoughts of the painter that went into her work. Viewers themselves take flights on the wings of those birds with tingling feelings.
Chang, a graduate of Graduate School of Fine Arts of Hongik University in Seoul, held seven solo and invitational exhibitions at such major cities as Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, and Busan. She also participated in some 150 group and international art exhibitions.
She can be reached at 02-908-1325 or H.P.: 017-201-7545 or by E-mail: artistchang@yahoo.co.kr nw

a flight | 2004 | 53cm x 45.5cm

a flight | 2004 | 53cm x 45.5cm

Painter Chang Jeong-ae