Daecho Park: Innocence Lost August 31, 2010

Daecho Park creates portraits of children affected by the trials of life yet at one with nature. In other words, he expresses that nature which although belabored by its steep climb through life, can maintain the innocence found in children. But, while they appear innocent enough, these children bear the mark of desolation, loss and pain that can often be glimpsed in their eyes. Park believes that our nature is damaged by social and personal irrational desires. Park transfers his photographs of children on natural material such as stone. Then he paints them often in monochrome or black and white to express the inclusion of all color in one and the absence of all color in the other as a way of returning to nature. He engraves, carves or cuts into the stone painting images that include grids or other ray lines that separate and displace portions of the face like shafts of light.