I find the supreme figure of life in the tree. It is the basis of the life system, and it can be said that the ecosystem is formed and the life itself is formed by creating nutrients that can cultivate life. We accept these life phenomena as aesthetic principles and try to implement them in our works. The supremeness and creativity of nature is the ultimate form of life. In my work, I am expanding the area of expression by using the material expressed in shape and the physical properties of the texture of the background by drawing the expression area of the background to the work by doing a lot of background work. The physical properties and textures created by the rough screen are in harmony with the shape, and I tried to express more lively. Now, I am taking my direction with a more delicate expression.

The surface of the old tree and beyond

Park, Young Taek (Art Cretic)

Choi Seok-woo shows a part of the root of a old tree enlarged. It focuses on the core part that is rooted in the earth and pushes up forcefully. The body and skin of the tree, as if looking up with the gaze sticking to the floor, or captured by the gaze of eye contact with the tree in a very low position, are exclusively and confidently seated. It corresponds to a lower gaze than an upright human gaze, a gaze closer to an object. Therefore, the general sense of distance is slightly crushed, and there is some kind of feeling of despair that is wrapped up closer to the body. So, only the thick and thick torso and the shell that cracked and stood like a turtle's shell fills the screen. It seems to be a painting with the intention of delivering a message through a genuine representation technique, a tree that comes in contact with the movement of one's life, a tree that exudes fresh vitality from the fresh green nature, and a sturdy tree. It is such a scenery where the fresh and refreshing colors of green, the bright and clear sky, the clear air, and the bright light coolly penetrate, the damp and fishy scent of the deep forest vibrates, and the atmosphere as if the ancient times still linger. It seems as if it is a consideration to drive viewers into the mountains to breathe the fresh air, to sense the vitality of the vertically rising trees, and to have a moment of rest, meditation, or healing in this space different from the busy city.

Perhaps the device to create such an illusion and illusion is not the purpose of drawing such a hyper-realistic picture? The trees drawn by the artist act as a medium to realize the unfathomable amount of time and the mysterious nature and subtle vitality. So, the artist seems to have purposely wanted to anchor our gaze right there. It is a space that is located at the opposite point of civilization and city. With such an elaborate representational technique, the illusionism of the viewer captures the gaze and attempts to enshrine the viewer's retina in the landscape of trees and forests, in an ideal space that contrasts with civilization. This hyperrealistic painting, drawn almost like a photograph, is an image that is based on photographs, elongated from photographs, and an image that repeats the effect of the lens again with brush strokes. It is a painting that is released from the point where photographs and paintings overlap and applies a photographic effect. First of all, the artist photographs a specific tree that came into her eyes. Since it is the gaze captured by the camera's mechanical mechanism and the effect of extreme perspective is emphasized due to its lens effect, the focus is sharply focused on the foreground object, which is the center of the picture, and the back is blurry.

First of all, the sensation and technology of reproducing the skin of a tree are excellent. Instead of just describing the photos they took, they pushed further away from them, going beyond the texture of photo paper, which is flat, slick and has only skin, and is actively making use of the material and materiality to maximize the physical and tactile properties of the tree itself. Meanwhile, we are trying to bring out the color closest to the colors of nature that we see and encounter with our eyes. This is an implementation of a painting that is the closest to what we see and feel with our own eyes, out of the conventional framework of existing representational and general hyperrealistic paintings, and on the one hand, an attempt to rediscover the possibility of analog drawing in today's digital age. May be.

This painting, based on Seok-Woo Choi's elaborate representation, is a realistic call to a place in our mountain stream. It calls out the universal landscape of nature here deeply imprinted in the memories of the people living in this land. As a result, the so-called endemic nature and characteristics of Korean nature are also hidden behind the scenes. Only quiet nature exists in this painting. The traces of humans and civilization have been erased, and there are only forests/mountains and trees that are positioned like eternity in the weight of distant time. The landscape is frozen in the trend of a specific season. The center of the picture is definitely a tree. For us, a tree was a creature that sucks up the sound energy from the earth and breathes and breathes the yang energy from the sky, where the heavens and the earth communicate with each other and create the driving force of life. In that sense, trees were considered as spiritual beings who heard and conveyed the sounds of the heavens and the earth. Our ancestors have thought of the sun and the tree as the source of life. Trees breathe and live by sucking up the Eum-gi from the ground and the Yang-gi from the sky. This means that the heavens and the earth communicate through trees and create the driving force of life (energy and vitality). In that sense, a tree is a spiritual being who hears and conveys the sounds of the sky and the earth. On the other hand, in the midst of constant change, nature goes beyond itself and scatters countless lives. In motion, they constantly move from one form to another.

As it moves ceaselessly, it creates, breaks, destroys, and regenerates the existing form. That is the essence of nature. It is not a fixed form, but a generational form, and it is an illusion that does not stay for a moment and disappears constantly. Humans reflect on their own life through such natural life activities. It is a secret reflection of one's finite life in this infinite realm of nature. Therefore, seeing nature and living things, observing the process of their creation and extinction, does not confirm that man is the absolute subject, but participates in the'otherness of infinity'. Perhaps the artist was immersed in such thoughts while looking at the tree. Following such a journey of thinking is also his painting.

The artist thinks beyond the bark and surface of an old tree. Obviously, the bark of a tree is not the essence, but it is also an inevitable surface that allows us to imagine the back side. Try to reminisce and enter an infinite space through the surface. Through the skin of the tree, we reflect on the nature of the existence of the tree, the properties of nature, and the vitality of the tree. Painting is also inevitably attaching the skin of an object onto the surface of a given canvas, but at the same time, it implies an invisible interior and a certain backside. So it becomes a too deep surface. Above all, the tactile paintings of Seok-Woo Choi seem to be trying to fully convey the skin texture and sensation of objects that the artist's body feels through brush strokes. Tactile conversation! Here, Seok-Woo Choi's representational painting begins with a hyper-realistic depiction of visible alien objects, but it does not only result in imitation of the object. What is shown as a picture does not stop at resembling objects outside the screen, but starts from there and tries to go further. It means that formative representation can imply resemblance, but resemblance does not result in representation. Isn't it the world of painting that is not entirely absorbed or occupied by representation? In the end, he tries to reveal the vivid sense of traces triggered by the object before or beyond the realist form as it is shown. It is trying to visualize the amazing time and vitality of the tree, and the countless stories that are not visible through its bark. It attracts people who see it into the world and gives them thoughts.