Hello, this is Simok Emma Han and welcome to my website!

I am studying studio art at Boston College. This website contains some of the art projects that I did while I attended BC and hope to upload new artwork as often as I can. To understand my work of art, I thought it would be best to give you a little background on my journey as a studio art student. I switched my major to studio arts in my junior year, and it has been such an interesting yet challenging ride because I have been trying to explore with different mediums, such as collage, mixed media, acrylic, and oil, in a short amount of time. Art itself and making art have been very fun to learn yet challenging because there are many aspects to think about when making art, such as shadow, composition, tone, color theory, and more. I quickly learned that art is connected to all parts of life, such as mathematics, science, and physics. Even though I was only a studio art major for two years, those two years changed me as a person and my perspectives on life. I truly learned how to value the forms of art and I was able to discover things about myself as well. 

One of my favorite projects was when I dived deeply into circles and optical illusion. I started in the fall semester experimenting with circles and “spot painting”. I was born into a traditional family in Korea where the society limits and diminishes one’s ability to be creative. The culture trained me to be a robot that lacks personal choice and the ability to construct a unique life. Living in a world of squares, straight lines, and right angles blocks me from my freedom. The expectations, the repressions, and the lack of control over my life have led me to live in a square box that others created for me and curtailed my imagination. Art allows me the freedom to think imaginatively, freedom to create, freedom to make choices, and freedom to act with confidence. To me, the shape of a circle signifies expansiveness and growth. 

When I experiment with “spot” painting, every “spot” comes out differently. Some circles are perfectly symmetrical, some are slightly oval, some spread easily, and some don't spread but pile up. Even though they are all considered circles, there is something compelling about the singularity of each circle. To dive more deeply into spot painting, I experimented with the idea of optical illusion in the spring semester. Optical illusion, simply, is a visual deception by our eyes. I used to trick myself that this culture that trains you to become a robot that lacks personal choice is part of an unrealistic game. There are many different ways optical illusion can deceive depending on the pattern, color, or shape. The goal is to make people stop and engage with the optical illusion and to think and reflect about the deceptions they are experiencing in life. 

I resonate with how Damein Hirst describes his experience painting circles as a means of “pinning down the joy of colour”, and his belief that they provided a solution to all problems he’d previously had with color. With the help of Joseph Albers's color theory, I learned that color is its own language and that it has the ability to affect one’s soul, mood, and emotions. With the help of artists like Bridget Riley and Victor Vassarely, I was able to learn about optical illusion and how simple shapes like circles or lines can have a powerful impact on your eyes. The more I work with “spot” painting, the more I’m able to enjoy and appreciate color and it gives me the desire to create my own unique, colorful life.

I hope you will be able to follow me along my journey as a person who enjoys making art!