Insadong Art Night!

My Korean friend Rebecca, who is an artist, was displaying her painting at an art gallery in the art conscious area of Insadong in Seoul. She invited Kim and I to attend at the gallery and it was well worth the trip. We went to go see Rebecca, who was so excited that we came, and we looked around the gallery and saw all of the paintings. They were excellent and Rebecca's was really interesting. She explained to us that she envisioned a series of plants and animals that used to live on earth, but because of human destruction they became extinct. This was the basis for her painting. Her painting is of a tree that she pictured living in the forest. We discussed about how the eyes of the tree looked human and almost ashamed of what they have done to nature on earth. Also the manner in which the deer and the rabbit are looking at you (the viewer of the painting) saying "It's your fault." It was very interesting to know what artists actually draw about, because everyone sees something different.

After the art show, Rebecca, Kim, Jay, and I went for tea at one of the tea houses (which are all famous) in the Insadong area. There were live birds flying around the tea house as well as many different setups around (including a table which was a big bowl with fish in it and a sheet of glass on top). It was great tea and I had a great time.

When we were leaving we went to look at all the ceramics that were in the shops in the area. Rebecca explained about all of the ceramics and the different patterns. Kim ended up buying a beautiful tea set that has Cranes on it, the tea set is very traditional and Korean.

All in all, it was a great night and a lot of fun.