The origin of Kim Hee Kyung formative art is nature. She is stimulated and inspired by it. Nature has plenty of formative elements which enlighten her desire to express them. All things in the world come from nature and eventually go back to it. Humans learn, see, feel, and behave through nature. She adapts herself to this providence. She gladly accepts faith and obedience for the Absolute, who has made nature perfect in its own existence. She praises the beauty that a mystical creature possesses. When she sees the shape of buds appearing in spring, she is taken aback by its dazzling beauty. The process of a solid shell turning into a soft leaf, sprouting stems so that splendid flowers can bloom, is an amazing drama that boasts its own greatness. Watching this process, Kim Hee is fascinated by the great creativity of nature. Her series “Bloom,” which began in 2009, features paper works using traditional Korean Hanji paper. It is known that the life expectancy of Hanji is a thousand years, and its formative variability is unlimited because of its soft but strong quality of material. The flower's image, which symbolizes natural beauty, is expressed as a relief with Hanji paper giving it physical property. She puts the meaning on the flower, a marvelous living thing with the creative energy to carry a new life as a plant’s womb. Furthermore, her Hanji work aims to express wide, deep, and unlimited natural vitality in ‘Bloom”, not simply to express beautiful figures of flowers. Some time ago, while she was incredibly immersed in her work, she heard a voice of ‘Control’ from somewhere. From that moment on, she could look at herself objectively by controlling her emotions. When strolling the lakeside by her studio, she could not take her eyes off the ripples of the swinging water surface. Suddenly, in that moment, she felt her inner eyes were brightening. She was looking at the world of spirit over the risky and unstable reality. Her view was enlarged in the process of seeing nature from a distance, and she started considering a transcendental world over reality. Kim Hee Kyung was thinking about the sincerity for life and the true meaning of her works again as she entered into the middle and latter half of her life. With a serenity of mind that can accommodate all realistic things, she is worried about finding a real aesthetic value transcending sensations. She looks for silent images that can move the mind rather than stimulate the viewer’s eyes. - KIM HEE KYUNG

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