Kyoung Ae Cho

Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Art, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Throughout our lives, we are constantly influenced by people and things that surround us. At the same time we constantly influence them as well. As an artist I cannot avoid getting my inspiration from things around me, especially for my art making.

Nature and natural elements have been my most important sources of inspiration. I've been trying to understand the beauty and logic of nature and natural elements, and to explore them through my work. I've been looking particularly closely at trees as instruments for understanding nature, and as a material for my work. Linear qualities in nature, especially in trees, have been the characteristics I've connected to most. I am very interested in the external line of trees, such as the lines of branches, twigs, stems, etc., as well as the internal line of trees, such as wood grain. My recent work has been the exploration of wood grain as a mark of the natural rhythm and history of a tree's life and time, as well as a visual pattern.