Jon Dunbar is a copy editor at The Korea Times, as well as editor of the Foreign Community page and curator of the Korea Times Archive. If you have suggestions for possible articles, or wish to contribute articles yourself, contact jdunbar@koreatimes.co.kr.
Artist captures Seoul neighborhoods with acrylic, embroidery
A painting by Brittany Fanning shows a residential neighborhood in Seoul. / Courtesy of Brittany Fanning
By Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
Try to picture Seoul in your mind. You're probably imagining hundreds of identical gray apartments, impersonal glass office buildings and wide streets crammed with cars. There is beauty in the city, but it's hard to come by.
, an American resident of Seoul, has found a way to bring out that beauty through art. She's exhibiting a series of art pieces made with acrylic paint and embroidering on linen, showing familiar but seldom-appreciated scenes of Seoul.
"I began simply by wanting to paint the two Korean villas I had lived in," Fanning told The Korea Times. "When I began sketching, I noticed all of the add-ons, satellite dishes, multicolored bricks, tangled piping and wires. What I always thought was a mess became beautifully intricate."
Her paintings focus on Seoul's Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon communities, both with high foreign populations. N Seoul Tower is visible in the background of one painting. Another incorporates a scooter parked next to a no scooters sign.
"I strictly paint what's around me," she said. "For the Korean architecture series, I'll go on a photo hunt when I think of a concept. I'll spend time editing the photos, changing their colors and sketching them out. Then I'll set up an easel, turn on a podcast and begin painting. When the painting is finished, I start the embroidery."
Brittany Fanning works on an art piece. / Courtesy of Brittany Fanning
She cites English pop artist David Hockney and American realist Edward Hopper as influences, drawn to their bold use of color, geometric simplicity and lack of emotional narrative.
"My style is reflective of growing up in the foothills of north Georgia. I've always tried to emulate the bold color palette and painterly techniques of regional artists," she said.
"When I was young, I would upload photos onto Microsoft paint and use the dropper tool to see which colors made up the images. I was overwhelmed by how many colors you could find in just the bark on a tree or on a human face. Finding the colors that naturally exist and emphasizing them is what makes painting thrilling for me. It's not just colorful for color's sake. If you look around Seoul or simply Gyeongnidan, you'll see pink, blue and orange buildings. On a clear day, the neighborhood almost reminds me of Florida. Occasionally the pollution creates a dismal atmosphere, so I try to photograph on the clearest days and bring out the colors that are there but so often masked by fine dust."
She's been making art for as long as she can remember, but began painting in high school. "My first painting was a watercolor of a local drug store, Rite Aid, burning down," she said. "I loved using this medium in a somewhat sarcastic and humorous way. I've since matured slightly."
In 2014, she began to incorporate embroidery into her paintings. "I was told that this was a feminist technique, but I'm not sure," she said.
As well as city scenes, she also does portraits, including pet portraits and a recent embroidery series on Seoul drag queens. She also does commissions. "I'm constantly working, so I'm very thankful to the community for that," she said.
She will be displaying her work starting 8 p.m. June 29 at
as part of the
, alongside photographs by
and oil paintings by
.
The poster for the event "Structure"
"Now that the weather is nice, I hope to visit more neighborhoods with a similar aesthetic to Gyeongnidan and highlight their unique features. Seoul has so much to work with," she said.
"I think a lot of gorgeous and weird architecture goes unnoticed and it's important to document ― especially now while Seoul is going through gentrification. Many of the buildings I photographed months ago are gone or covered up by new construction."