Guimi You’s exhibition, Color Me, signals her return to large-scale, oil-based paintings. The exhibition explores a fascination with the surrounding landscapes of Northern California and celebrates the domestic surrealism of her experiences as a mother. You’s paintings blend and blur reality and daydreams with a sense of magical realism. They astound in their intimacy and playfulness. Immersing herself in a world of kid’s toys and coloring books, she began to emphasize the playful abstractions already present in her work.

“COLOR ME” at Make Room Gallery in Los Angeles opens September 4th.

I live in a small city called Albany in the east bay area of Northern California. My studio is on Solano Avenue across Berkeley and Albany. This street has many coffee shops and restaurants—which is actually one of the main reasons I got a studio on this street, as the culture and city are things I appreciate very much. Previously, I lived only in areas with four distinct seasons, meaning that for a good chunk of the year I was freezing. Here, I experienced California weather for the first time; making my art, raising my family, and enjoying the outdoors here is all possible, and more importantly, extremely comfortable (especially compared to those freezing places).

Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences?

The main thing that motivates me is my family. I live at home with my 6 year old son and my husband, who are both constantly inspiring me. My son, being a young boy, is currently at a stage of innocence, discovery, and imagination in life. Seeing him read his toy book, learn how to speak in both Korean English, and express himself all inspire me to discover myself and broaden the capacity for my creativity in the way that a child would. While my husband and I have more of a relationship of equals, being the adults of the family, he has always supported my work and career. The discussions that we have always encourage me to keep going, and never cease to inspire me. 

Tell us a bit about your creative process?

​​For this upcoming show, the key themes are “color”, “garden”, and “mother”.  On my daily walk to the studio, seeing the gardens made by my neighbors in the city never fails to strike me, to make me stop and appreciate the beauty of the city—both the nature of the garden, and the artistic beauty created by each of the gardens’ makers. The colors, arrangements, and variety of these gardens reminds me of the limitless possibilities in life, and the fact that you can find beauty anywhere. 

My son’s kindergarten workbook, on the other hand, reminds me of what it means to be a mother. This workbook mostly includes sections of color-by-number and hidden pictures—oftentimes, the assignments my son completes in his book require him to cut out shapes and paste them onto different pages. The simplicity of this mixed with complexity of color has inspired my work greatly. As you can probably see while looking at my paintings, I have borrowed from this style, implementing images in my colorful works that appear to be pasted from other images in a simplistic way that reminds me of the beauty of simplicity, childhood, and innocence. 

How has the pandemic affected your creativity, and how do you see the world changing? 

During the pandemic, I was forced out of my studio and into my home for over a year. For a while, I began using acrylic paint because I didn’t want to burden my family with the side effects of oil paintings; dirtying the kitchen sink and ventilation problems are some of the cons of oil painting, especially when you’re oil-painting in your own home. Because of this, I had to adjust the material of my painting with acrylic paint, which at first was a bit hard to adjust to, but ended up pushing me creatively in ways that I never imagined. Recently, however, I’ve been back in my studio and shifted back to oil painting, allowing me to make the larger paintings that I used to. 

As for the world changing, I think for the last decade we’ve already been thrust into an accelerated shift into internet communication. The pandemic has only exacerbated and sped up this shift. As someone who hasn’t had time to make friends in the year and a half since I’ve moved here, I’m excited to live in a time where people with similar interests can meet and bond in the internet world despite the physical distance between them. 

Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?

Everyone wearing a mask and keeping me and my family from getting sick is an icon in my book. 

What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?

To me, surprisingly, wellbeing means not making paintings for a living. Painting has stripped me of a lot of the time I used to spend with my family—something that I feel guilty about. Personally, I envy all of you out there that paint to heal. For me, it’s almost like I paint to feel pain—not that I’m a masochist or something. Nevertheless, I can’t stop painting. The process may be tough, but the reward of showing my struggle and creativity to people is something I view as even more valuable than my own well-being. 

instagram