2024
Seoul,
studio and muses,
living by the mountains.
Seoul,
studio and muses,
living by the mountains.
My semester has finished :D!!!
I finally have time to organise my thoughts. This page is starting to look long and messy so I have moved some posts here !
Some of my posts still remain unfinished over there (I need to sort through sketches and photos). However from now on, anything I may expand on will be hyperlinked for space-sake!
Summer explorations -
Ridiculously lucky to be able to catch a glimpse of a Chinese Peacock Swallowtail in a small garden.
In a brief moment I thought I stepped into a piece of minhwa!
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Ridiculously lucky to be able to catch a glimpse of a Chinese Peacock Swallowtail in a small garden.
In a brief moment I thought I stepped into a piece of minhwa!
Cat Mountain
Recently, the weather allowed a break between the rains.
During this time, I decided to trek into the nearby mountains - something I had wanted to do in the Summer.
On the way, we accidentally turned onto a wrong path and ended up hiking up a street...
It was so steep my knees nearly buckled onto my feet.
“Keep going,” he cheered. He pushed the small of my back, apparently a technique used to aid the process of moving uphill.
To be continued... here !
7월
Cheonan-si
hesistant, stuck in time -
Over the weekend, a group of us visited a friend at his hometown Cheonan-si (famous for hodu-gwaja).
It was the first time I’ve seen corn fields and various vegetable patches in the middle of a bustling city. We mostly spent time under the blistering sun by the lake, and cooled down with bingsu.
High humidity,
Everything is sticky; this exacerbates my dislike for Summer.
Tonight is an exception - some cool after the storm. The frogs from Cheongnyongsan seemed to have moved into the garden; 개굴개굴...
6월
Summer gardens on the way to and back from SNU. Waiting at bus stops with giant fans attached to them. Sporting large billowy t-shirts and ‘cooling’ pants.
6월 6일
Memorial Day - Korean flags fly from windows in the humid breeze, some hang half-way from balconies and others on poles.
Today is a much welcome respite from the gruelling week at SNU - we speak no English in class, with writing and speaking being rather intense. But I’ve come out with more confidence with my 한국어, and I’m able to hold a basic conversation with my family now.
Fishing cabins at Yedang Reservoir.
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Yesan-gun (’Korea’s Apple Country’) -
a foggy day.
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a foggy day.
Bongsusan -
Still gathering fly-away thoughts...
I’ve been running around studying plants, trees and rocks while highly caffeinated (coffee is far too easy to access in South Korea, even in the countryside).
Below, a little awkward snap of myself by a gaudy bridge at an arboretum.
More here!
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Still gathering fly-away thoughts...
I’ve been running around studying plants, trees and rocks while highly caffeinated (coffee is far too easy to access in South Korea, even in the countryside).
Below, a little awkward snap of myself by a gaudy bridge at an arboretum.
More here!
Back in Seoul -
Giant lanterns of elaborate dragons, phoenixes and elephants line-up neatly on the asphalt in the empty carpark, obscured in the dark by the temple.
Initially planned to parade for Buddha’s birthday, cancelled due to rain.
Staying in Taean-gun, last Moon in Spring
town at the edge of the sea -
Strolling by small makeshift farms
She spots an orange stray in the setting light,
One eyed, muddy paws walking among
유채꽃
She calls to it / cat! mimicking a meow.
More here !
05
May in full force -
My windows had been wide open this season,
Allowing the Spring breeze sift in through the mountains…
I’ve slowly noticed my studio has been building up with a fine layer of yellow dust,
Pollen from the pine trees.
Back home, a snap before the jindallae wilts.
The last to bloom, swathes of bright red shrubs curated at the foot of the mountain.
In Geoje-do -
Little vegetable gardens squeezed into unused spaces.
Geoje-do, surreal in the weekend rain;
Billowing cloud embrace half-scooped forests and ocean in a thick mist. The landscape is diluted in white, where distance shades the edges of the world into a blank canvas.
Night, from the top of the mountains I keep my pace with friends in the drizzle. I worry about my footing on the slipperly uphill, and silently wish not to catch a cold before my week of meetings.
A few scattered street lamps throw faded light onto our paths. We pass a war memorial filled with plastic windmills. The island is much darker than the never-sleeping districts in Seoul. The sound of croaking frogs overwhelming.
Huddled in my windbreaker I look over the wire fence onto a sleeping suburb guarded by giant cranes and shipping containers.
I point: the cranes are their own mountains.
Their peaks illuminated by a pulsing light that highlighted text ‘Hanwha’.
‘Goliath’ is what Jaeil calls them. He works with them.
This once quiet port is becoming a commercialised shipyard under mega industries. There is a strange grit, an uncanniness being on a forest island that is slowly overtaken by industry...
It was like stepping into a Jeffrey Smart painting.
Billowing cloud embrace half-scooped forests and ocean in a thick mist. The landscape is diluted in white, where distance shades the edges of the world into a blank canvas.
Night, from the top of the mountains I keep my pace with friends in the drizzle. I worry about my footing on the slipperly uphill, and silently wish not to catch a cold before my week of meetings.
A few scattered street lamps throw faded light onto our paths. We pass a war memorial filled with plastic windmills. The island is much darker than the never-sleeping districts in Seoul. The sound of croaking frogs overwhelming.
Huddled in my windbreaker I look over the wire fence onto a sleeping suburb guarded by giant cranes and shipping containers.
I point: the cranes are their own mountains.
Their peaks illuminated by a pulsing light that highlighted text ‘Hanwha’.
‘Goliath’ is what Jaeil calls them. He works with them.
This once quiet port is becoming a commercialised shipyard under mega industries. There is a strange grit, an uncanniness being on a forest island that is slowly overtaken by industry...
It was like stepping into a Jeffrey Smart painting.
by the mountains
The Community Garden in the mountains.
I’m so bummed I had missed the deadline to book a plot at the community gardens this year! ︎
Between the trees in the Spring,
back to the mountains -
The forest floor is littered with fallen chestnuts and pink blossom petals. They’re edible, but will remained untouched for birds and squirrels.
back to the mountains -
The forest floor is littered with fallen chestnuts and pink blossom petals. They’re edible, but will remained untouched for birds and squirrels.
Splash! Buncheong Ware with Fish Designs, The National Museum of Korea.
I was able to catch this exhibition before it wrapped up late April. I absolutely love the selection of fish designs!
Buncheong is one of my favourite forms in Korean ceramics. At the time it was practiced regardless social class, made with free silhouettes and decorated with child-like drawings and patterns (stamping, sgraffito, incision...).
Hiking -
Gwanaksan, half awake.
Hiking -
Gwanaksan, half awake
04
I’ve been easing into a schedule that combines work and regular fitness at six-am starts. This was habitual in Sydney, but a tad exhausting in Seoul.
There is mindfulness required when adapting to Korean society (practicing language, learning manners, lifestyle, keeping up with appearances… may go into this a little more someday)!
Dance classes started this week; ridiculously fun and adjusting to the teacher’s (very fast paced) style.
The class has been welcoming despite the language barrier (I was invited into their Kakao group too!) It was also an opportunity to listen and speak, piecing conversations with words I know.
I’ve been easing into a schedule that combines work and regular fitness at six-am starts. This was habitual in Sydney, but a tad exhausting in Seoul.
There is mindfulness required when adapting to Korean society (practicing language, learning manners, lifestyle, keeping up with appearances… may go into this a little more someday)!
Dance classes started this week; ridiculously fun and adjusting to the teacher’s (very fast paced) style.
The class has been welcoming despite the language barrier (I was invited into their Kakao group too!) It was also an opportunity to listen and speak, piecing conversations with words I know.
Spring smog wraps up March in Seoul,
and April brings in the first blooms.
In the mountains, genari, 개나리 and jindallae, 진달래 are the first hallmarks of Spring. They dot the sleeping landscape in bright yellows and pinks before the warmth ushers in the green.
I’m shy of my third week here, but the amount of administrative matters handled so far had made my stay feel close to months.
Moon Jars Joseon Dyntasy, 18th c, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul.
An incredible experience to see these in real - two empty halves pieced together, and a part of my life is complete.
More of our visit here!
Olafur Eliasson, Gravity Stairs (2014), Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul.
Strolls around the neighbourhood.
03
In Seoul -
I spot noisy fledglings on a low hanging branch, nest made clumsily stooping over the road.
“What about passing cars and strays...?
A meow responds between a thicket of still-dormant shrubs. An orange tabby eyes me warily, bell jingling at his collar as he lazily treads up the mountain.
In Seoul -
I spot noisy fledglings on a low hanging branch, nest made clumsily stooping over the road.
“What about passing cars and strays...?
A meow responds between a thicket of still-dormant shrubs. An orange tabby eyes me warily, bell jingling at his collar as he lazily treads up the mountain.
... intoxicating scent of nectar,
floral pine with a hint of light honey
oozing from the centre onto my fingers,
sticky, sticking like sap
as I harvest the sunflower seeds
A few sunflowers had bent over in the summer storms.
I hope to glean a few good seeds even though they may not be completely ready for picking!
01
Sydney -
Stepped into the new year with a few hour hike through the mountains, tackling steep stairways and narrow, rugged terrain carved by the wind...
...then caught in a thunderstorm.
The rain, my yearning to live in the forests:
Soaked to the bone, hearing the sound of bird calls from low land, and seeing the rifts from lightning breaking grey clouds.
Sydney -
Stepped into the new year with a few hour hike through the mountains, tackling steep stairways and narrow, rugged terrain carved by the wind...
...then caught in a thunderstorm.
The rain, my yearning to live in the forests:
Soaked to the bone, hearing the sound of bird calls from low land, and seeing the rifts from lightning breaking grey clouds.