Artist Statement
I take pure joy in transforming my state of mind into visual images. As my mind wanders through life, sometimes something will capture my eyes’ attention and I cannot look away. My creation begins when I reflect on my feelings in that moment of transfixion. Therefore my artwork is a delightful visual meditation whatever the subject is.
When I was a child, I taught myself how to draw and paint. My favorite activity was to sit for hours in front of a little easel. I never tired of it. All the subjects that I loved to draw and paint have found a permanent home in my memory. Now, as a mature, life-long artist, I am creating art with the same sense of joy that I felt when I was a child.
Bio
Janie Jaehyun Park was born and grew up in Seoul, Korea. She spent her childhood in love with music, reading, drawing and painting. After teaching herself art as a child who always dreamed of becoming an artist, her life has taken her on a series of detours, including being an active member of her university’s artists’ club; a successful, young business woman; a mature art college student; an illustrator and art instructor; and a mother and wife.
She has a BA in French literature from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and a diploma in Illustration from Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada, where she won the Board of Governor’s Silver Medal and was named a Sheridan Scholar. She became a part of Toronto’s art community and taught art.
She has shown her artworks in various group shows in Seoul and Toronto. She has published several children’s and educational books in Canada, the United States, Korea and Japan. Her commercial work has appeared on several book covers, holiday cards, and CD covers, as well as in a variety of newspapers and magazines. Her work has won several awards including the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award from IBBY Canada, two Applied Arts Magazine awards, and two awards from The Korean Publishing Illustrators’ Association.
Her first picture book, The Tiger and The Dried Persimmon, the retelling of a Korean folktale, was nominated as a finalist for the Canadian Governor General’s Literary Awards and won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award.
She currently lives in Ottawa, Canada with her husband and two children.