Page 154 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume VI
P. 154
Mae was born in Seoul, Korea, as the second child of eight which was surrounded by sprawling grass fields. Mae
siblings. Her mother was a nurse and a devout Christian, fondly remembers her time growing up there, a time of
and her father was a chemical engineer and an inventor sneaking between the gaps in the stone post fence with
of a special dye. Both her parents grew up in the same friends to play in the fields, happily making bracelets and
rural farming village and received education in big cities. rings with clover flowers.
After marrying, they lived in Seoul until the Korean War As she grew older, nature continued to fill her life. She went
began, when Mae was just three years old. Her family was to elementary school near Sam-chung Park Loop, Seoul,
evacuated, and together they escaped to Busan city, at and every morning she walked beside the flowing streams
the very south of the country, where they lived until the to her school. In fifth grade, her family moved to a new
War had ceased. Her family then returned to Seoul some house near the Han River, Seoul. She fondly remembers
three years later, when Mae was six. her new home with its spacious garden overflowing with
many kinds of flowers and fruit trees. Her grandfather
Mae’s parents rented a house that was one part of a also grew medicinal plants in the garden to store in his
much larger traditional Korean house built during the Lee medicine chest.
TOP CONTEMPOR ARY ARTISTS the King’s Palace (Kyung-Bok Gung), and the adjacent Watercolor painting filled her heart at just 12 years
Dynasty of old Korea. Not too far from the house was
old, when a private tutor taught her this art form with
building was the Japanese Ministry of Colonial Affairs,
LIFTED SOUL, 2021 DIGITAL ART ON METAL 18X24 IN. | 45.7X60.9 CM.
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