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In particular, she sought to pictorially reveal the emotional shifts occurring within the inner self through the diverse
lives of women. This change, as a genuine creation that pursues truth, allows for the imagination of life force—derived
from natural objects or mental images—to unfold on the same plane. The attempt to express imagination, formed by
transcending the categories of human and natural life, through literary and sensuous plastic forms is deeply fascinat-
ing. The artist speaks to the people living today as follows:

People are constantly living, engraving tattoos of freedom, hope, and dreams onto their bodies, moving toward dis-
tinct hopes. Amidst these people, I share the mystery and sublimity of life. While working, I am completely alone, yet
I can embrace many people within the work, and I realize that I can play and be free within that multitude of people.
(Artist’s Note)

In this way, the artist’s pictorial quality, rooted in the freedom derived from the reality of human society, has been ren-
dered even more beautifully through the intervention of inner temperament, imagination, and literary quality. This is
not merely an object of empirical reflection at the level of symbolism, but itself becomes a new aesthetic experience.
The pictorial quality gained through human experience is not merely subordinate to the process of thought, enrich-
ing it, but is transformed into an artistic entity that can possess the same attributes as thought itself. The distinct
originality of her work lies in the other-directed (他者的) formalization of her pictorial sense within the framework of a
concept where literary consciousness and content flow, rather than merely at the level of descriptive action.

Thus, Kwon Sook-ja’s world of work transcends the aesthetic phenomenon constituted by the relationship between
the object and the artist, and is uniquely encapsulated in the complex relationship between the subjects of people
and nature, literary quality, and life and the artist’s imagination. Furthermore, her unique use of relief-style techniques
and everyday objects like kitchen cutting boards—which are uncommon in existing planar works—are newly estab-
lished as plastic mediums, heightening the pictorial tension arising from this new relationship setting. In other words,
the artist’s inner emotion and literary inspiration, felt when observing nature or an object, serve as a medium for new
plastic formalization. In particular, the artist’s attempt to express the phenomena she observed in a virtual yet new
image and form, using her aesthetic imagination through the external figures of objects such as the sun, moon, deer,
stars, streams, fish, women, and men, is assessed as highly active and positive. Therefore, her series of works embodies
a depth of symbolism, metaphor, and literary quality that is different from existing abstract or naturalistic works. This
symbolic, metaphorical, and literary quality stems from her approach of internally synthesizing the form of the object
according to her literary sensibility and recreating it with new images and meaning, as well as the originality and art-
istry developed from a perspective different from conventional artistic expression.

Therefore, her work is not merely a textual contemplation, but a case where the metaphorical, symbolic, and literary
images—which can be newly imagined by multi-dimensionally embracing the situation of people and nature derived
from a holistic life—achieve harmony within a single screen, naturally expressing artistry and aesthetic value. This
is a contemplative (觀照的) domain, based on self-reflection, and can be said to be an expression of artwork that is
superior to mere plastic sensory art.

Kwon Sook-ja is a currently active artist who has contemplated life stemming from nature and humanity from various
perspectives in terms of plastic form for over 40 years, maintaining a consistent plastic sensibility despite enduring
major and minor trials and errors. She is highly valued for having earnestly contemplated the essence and true nature
of nature and people, developing works of high artistic merit without wavering as she approached the core essence.
She is considered a leading artist representing the Korean art world, meeting expectations in terms of diligence, pas-
sion, artistic confidence, and quality of work.

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