by Park, Myung-In (Art Critic / Korea Aesthetics Research Center)

  When we look from the aesthetic point of view that 'the beauty of nature can be built from empirical objectivity but that the purpose of the painting is subject to the subjective function, process or the restoration of the attitude enabling the shape of beauty to take its form, 'we can see that Lee, Young-Hee's paintings symbolize the age and the traces and they are the fruits obtained due to his respect towards Mother Nature. His current exhibition 'the world of light symbolizing hope', and also as an effort to approach the essential beauty which he tries to express, empirical purpose of painting is being attained by the material. This type of spirit of inquisitive mind is exhibited by a creative feature which summarizes into one from the many faces of art in its essence. This is the very world of light containing the life style that Lee, Young-Hee pursues.

  In his composition, first with landscapes painted with a tendency towards realism he tries to suppress the description of shapes of objects and simplifies it with the elements used in the language of paintings. In order to emphasize the subjectivity of expression he is composing the reality of life by simplifying the objects and mixing and adding an image of personification. Second, while making the central theme 'the light symbolizing hope', he composes the rough ragged dirt roads and hills with strong rays of ight symbolizing hope in the sky.

  Sometimes the appearance of an village woman who lives by working the land and the elder characters that have experienced working the life through various ways is because it carries the deep wheel tracks of the image of life due to long hardships. At a glance it might appear like a character inside a simple landscape, but in that gesture his thoughts of life are expressed. Not only this but the dirt roads that contain the tracks of numerous people who had walked on them signify the flowing of time and the passing of age. In short, the trees, water, roads, time and colors which are the five categories displayed in a diagram, are the history left behind in the continuity of time and the indication of the mind was an application of the principle of quickening which is moving through material objects. Also the purpose of this intuitive thinking and sensitivity is the norm to be the creativity as the free expression of the mind which makes the reality of life.

  All the pieces he has shown up until now described the annua 1 rings of trees or scars and through them he made us look back at the times past and the toughening of life after undergoing long rough times. And by drawing 'roads' the metaphoric meaning of the wheel tracks already walked on are emphasized. Especially in order to show the road of life incessantly thirsting for hope, he drew hills and personified the past suffering. And that light in the air meant hope. Extremely simple landscapes.
However Lee, Young-Hee's thoughts are being effused in a very wide area through visual shapes, forms, human drama, and drawing techniques. In other words, he draws pictures where the roads of pain are walked and where the hills are climbed and where hope has met life as a whole.

  When a person is born he has a prearranged course of life. He must live until he dies. This rule is forever unchangeable. During this process there are many events and occurrences. There is joy, anger and sorrow, and pleasure. Lee, Young-Hee expressed this, linking the spiritual meaning and materialistic thoughts as one characteristic of existence, through a wide range of colors and hues and movable shapes. This is the sensitive expression of concepts, a type of art and it defines the symbol of hope.

  The overall condition is slightly omitting the figure and omitting completely the self-explanatory shapes of realistic landscapes. He did not put emphasis on the visual value that the road gives as a shape but put focus on the metaphoric character of the meaning of the road. Therefore, in order to express the visual angle, space, time, formation, shape and psychology is considered important. Because his type of concept of figure is closely related to intuitiveness and that style puts forth a wide range of meanings through the overall concept of beauty.

  In the simplified landscapes, and the artistic language they carry poetic philosophy is very strong. What is the true life of people? Where are people from and where are they going? What is hope and what is despair? Much like the enlightenment of a foreseer it makes the observer to have a thought.

  Among these, the description of individuals especially rather than being the ndividual inside the landscape, through the object, emphasis is put in it as a medium to convey to the observer his intention. In other words, this is a specific expression consistent with the universe's feelings, land, people and personality. And it is the outburst of creativity onunconsciousness and consciousness which uses as material the internal experience of intuition and emotions, sentiments. In that way, he accepts reality, recognizes real life and deepens it further and completes the method of aesthetic that joins life and nature.

  'Because I am a painter, I express all my thoughts on my paintings. Therefore all the paintings I have exhibited so far show the image of the changing face of nature in time or the face of how people live' said Lee, Young-Hee, who more than anyone has deeply hought about life.

  Especially when thinking about the pain humans suffer throughout a lifetime. But he looks up to the new model of humans who never give up hope and are resolute. There is an old Chinese saying that goes 'after bitter comes sweet'. It is the already prearranged course of life that everyone goes through hardships in life, and a lesson that if these are overcame a good thing awaits them. In this point, this contains many similarities with Lee, Young-Hee's theme of 'hope' The human spirit's structural tendency that even experiencing change and meaning hardships and adversities, it never feels despair and it always seeks hope. And he inversely looked into the current world, life, and used the past traces to throw light into the present and to make it consistent with the new world view of tomorrow, this is a privileged composition of thought. That is why Lee, Young-Hee's spiritual vitality is softly and meticulously described by his intellectual capacity for composition, as an effect of intuition the focus is put on the special time effects. As a result, immediate tension is omitted completely, the shaping step. What cannot be seen with the naked eye, and conceptual things are expressed with the sentiments and spiritual personality and he completes and perfects this by making it an important characteristic in his works.

  In conclusion, he seeks to shape life in the age of objects that change according to themes, and shapes his own new style of painting.
  The theme for his first exhibition were 'trees'. Where he personified the truth about life by showing the section view of annual rings of felled trees and describing the changes that time brings,

  For his second theme he chose 'water'. By painting the stones and pebbles in the water he again showed the passing of time and metaphorically expressed nature and logic and the face of life by showing the constant washing and polishing of the rocks' shapes.

  The next theme selected selected was 'light and time'. Again by the visual images of colors and space he described the time and special qualities of life in the past, present, and future.
  These groups of paintings are a line of work metaphorically expressing the traces of the changing Mother Nature and human life condition.

  In these current works, we can say that their prominent feature are the dirt roads and the red skies. Dirt roads are the ones on which myriads of people have walked on and left behind many stories. The features of past traces the passing of time, the changing face of nature and the hardships and suffering of life that are left buried are imprinted in his painting.

  The red sky signifying hope inherently possesses a color-related psychological meaning. If we look at the principles of color mixing researched until now, chromatic sense is felt according to the level of light passing the spectrum, which is directly related to the optical nerves. Three types of light detecting organs connected to the optical nerve system that receive all types of light, it senses red first, then green and last of all, the blue.

  In short, the results of the research show that the eye nerves sense the color red faster than other colors and this is the central message Lee, Young-Hee is trying to convey through the red skies. The light during daytime is very strong but the sensation felt by the color is very weak, on the other hand the light at dusk is weak but the color becomes strong due to the reflection.

  Although the reflecting power is very weak on the objects of the painting, by intensifying the light in the characters he has expressed their hope. While climbing the hill and the end of the visual horizon fills us with curiosity and expectation.

  However the eye of the observer standing at the top of a mountain. Because of geometrical elements playing a rose, the enormous space and the angle generally gives them a sense of ecstasy. In other words, the limitations of clarity of sight incites the human desire but a vast space gives them a sense of satisfaction, replenishment.