About Anese

          Creating art, including painting and drawing, is a primitive instinct, which I feel we’re all born with. Cavemen drew in their caves. And children start to draw as soon as they can hold crayons and without any lessons. I believe that we’re all born artists before the concepts of right and wrong and good and bad come into play. I know that my own journey started as pure instinct. When I was little I drew from dawn to sunset. I drew in the sand and in the dirt with a simple sharp rock or stick and erased them with a quick swipe of my hand or foot and then did it again and again.  I just loved it.

          If I try to say all that I want to say, my stories, my mixed emotions and unanswered questions would take an infinite amount of time to express. But with my paintings, I can express what I want to quickly, and I can be understood with a look or a glimpse. I can communicate so many years of sorrow, joy and wonders in one moment. It is the best way I know to converse with other people. It is also the purest way to converse with myself. My desire to paint stems from my inner feeling of wanting to see images in my mind again. I can only see these portraits if I close my eyes. If I paint, these images come alive. 

          Using a telescope to try to figure out how the universe works, or using a microscope to analyze the intricacies of the human body really hold no difference. Underlying theory of how these observational instruments operate is the same. In painting, one artist expresses a view of society, another expresses an ideology of the past and others express a type of realism. But I want to talk about myself because the story of me encompasses all of the above and more,just as one tiny cell contains the story of the universe.  

          My life has been full of trial and error. Instead of a shortcut, I took the longest path possible back to my canvas. There were failed projects, relationships and unfulfilled hopes and despair. When I thought my road was completely blocked I was down another beautiful path by my wise guru, Armand Dimele, and from there I restarted my journey. The entire time, through the good and terrible, like loyal friends, my little Moleskine sketchpads never left my side. I am transferring all of these sketches to canvas. 

          My paintbrush is connecting me to my pure self.  And I breathe. And along that journey I am breaking out of the box and traveling through the path and meeting my self once again. Now I’m thinking about the universe and energy. How and why are we all here…  All of my painting sessions develop simultaneously, it is here that my past and future meet my present. My questions are presented. Some receive answers and others remain open. I call myself a wanderer, a dreamer, and a student. You might call me an artist.

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- Anese Eun Cho