My name is Karen and I draw. No, hold on. A better answer is --
I have never been able to answer the question, “who are you?” very well.
I am many things – Korean, (almost) American, (somewhat) British, (wannabe) Kiwi. And I do many things – I draw, design, edit, visualise, scribe, research, teach and write.
So it’s been really hard to describe who I am or what I do, as my answer never withstands all. But, writing this post, I just got it!
Hello, my name is Karen and I show. I visualise your ideas, data and opinions. I draw to share my moments of delight with you. I research how visualising personal identities impact the person’s self-esteem. And I teach all I know about ‘showing’ to those who want to communicate through visuals.
I am a bricolage and this has taken me on many interesting experiences
A ‘bricolage’ is someone who has many talents and interests. A more common way of describing such a person is ‘a Renaissance man.’
My (fortunate) inability to focus on one area of expertise led to me do, meet and work with more people, on very different subjects. I’ve worked with Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design on visualising Driverless Vehicles and providing for the elderly in Hong Kong. I worked with the NHS to visualise their hopes and dreams for the future. I scribed for Toyota, the Smithsonian Museum, Royal College of Art, Loughborough University, and Uppsala Universitet. I gave talks in the ICON symposium for Illustration, the Popular Culture Association Conference and V Cham Conference. I gave Urban Sketching Workshops in Italy, the US, UK, China and South Korea. And I taught mature students to be illustrators through Falmouth University.
In short, I am always up for a great project. And my passion is giving ideas, data and projects a face. Clearly, this meant very different outcomes for different people, but it always yielded a great outcome and many dear friends.