This week I had the pleasure to interview Yirch Elaine Kwak at the Gatov Gallery West.
I asked her a couple questions. She was really friendly and easy to talk to.
Was this painting made between your last show and this show?
Yes, this is my most recent piece.
Do you sell your paintings? How much do you sell it for?
It depends on the size of the painting and how long you worked on it for. But I’m a student so you have to try to get as much as you can.
Do you know the other artists of this show?
Yes, they are my painting buddies. We have been friends for almost three to four years now.
What are your feeling that you have for opening this show this time?
This show is kind of sentimental for me because it is a show with all of my good artist friends and they know my painting from the beginning and they know my improvement in painting too.
They are the people that I rely in the future and the real world. We are nice to each other but we are honest about each others work. We tell each other if the painting is not good or good, how they can fix it. They helped me do this painting too.
This piece of yours almost looks like Spanish painting, are you inspired by that?
Yes, a little bit. I am inspired by almost every any good painting or any art work. But I am especially inspired by Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gaugin.
Can you explain the theme of this show for us?
Yes, “Liminal” means “the changing period of time”, we wanted to show the transition, us trying to become a real artist from just an art student. Our work had changed so much from the first year of college and even from the beginning of this semester.
Do you have a message for art students?
I would say you should never close yourself from the world. I am a painting person but I also draw, illustrate and studied theatre too. There are a lot of inspiration all over the world.
The last message she gave to the students was very inspirational to me and I think so too. Sometimes when I watch movies I tend to watch movies from the genre I like but I know I cannot avoid watching movies just because I don’t like it. I had a wonderful time interviewing her.
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