Providence [Jeollanam Buk-Do, Korea]

Jeollanam Buk-Do is a region in the Mid South West of South Korea renowned for delicious foods and produce. 

This drawing came from a series of studies I made there during a self funded journey I took making artworks to celebrate the end of a period of teaching communication in the capital, Seoul.

My studio was an old model car with my materials and a traditional folding leg table on the backseat, and my goal was immersion in regional activities to gain a better understanding of that culture, landscape, farming practices, and populace.

In this case I was thinking about how the land provides sustenance and simply enjoying the evidence of human interaction with the Earth. I enjoy entirely organic marks but I also find stimulation in the regulation and order that humans bring to wild places too, in the form of orchards, and buildings, and systems for living more easily. I also enjoy observing the different solutions people of various cultures find for the same agricultural challenges.

Driving the backroads of anywhere is something I cannot recommend enough. How incredible to come suddenly across half of the road taken up with blue tarps covered with neatly arranged drying chillies, or to pluck ripe Persimmons from the trees on those verges. Lucky, long, uninterrupted moments of discovery and Providence.