Artist: Won-Hee Gowen
Title: Rhythm 31
Image Size: 18" x 24" As Shown (Multiple sizes available - select size options above)
Edition: Standard Limited Edition to 200
Medium: Fine Art Giclee on Canvas
Artist Statement: It has been said to me that true art evokes your emotions and challenges your intellect... but whereas this is usually said in relation to the viewer I believe it applies equally to the artist. The creative process begins instinctively, emotionally, but from there one must then strive for technical precision; only when there is a balance of emotion and intellect have I succeeded in creating art. Further, in doing so, one must never be obvious: the brilliance of the technique should be subtle, elegant; art must never appear laboured. The visual artist should be like a star dancer or athlete: the ease with which they perform belies the difficulty of the endeavour and the hours of painstaking practice.

This fusion of disparate elements is central to who I am and what I create. I was born in Korea where communication is very subtle and complex but I have spent the last thirty years in Canada where people are generally open and straightforward: my work shouts out its colours but whispers its details. I live in the city yet feel a greater affinity to nature: I breathe in the wind and water and earth and exhale them onto the fabricated canvas. What I feel I think, what I think I paint: a raw explosion of colour and energy layered with thoughts and textured by words. Paintings that say, "Come closer. Peer into my soul. Talk to me."