Despite economic pressures and hard financial times, ETSU still supports art recognition by bringing inspiring artists to come speak to students.
Presented in part by the Women’s Studies Program, Korean artist Leeah Joo traveled from her home and studio in Middeberry, Conn., for a lecture in the ETSU Ball Hall auditorium on Thursday, Feb.22.
Joo has received an MFA in painting at Yale School of Arts and a BFA in painting and a BA in art history from Indiana University.
Her awards include the 1996 Helen W. Winternitz Award, the 2001 Charlotte Street Foundation Grant, the 2004 George Sugarman Foundation Grant, the 2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the 2008 Conneticut Commission of Culture and Tourism Artist Fellowship Grant.
Joo presented a casual lecture including slides of her artwork to ETSU students that was open to questions and comments throughout.
In her presentation, Joo described herself as a realist painter who mostly paints her intricate pieces of art from real life. Often, she says, she paints from where she lives, works, or travels.
Preferring natural light, she became interested in paintings of industrious areas, which she found striking. The only problems in this were items such as chain-link fences. However, Joo explained she quickly began to enjoy their “consistency” and came to enjoy working such obstacles into her compositions.
She became interested in painting windows because she enjoyed the brightness of inside versus the outside. Joo describes her paintings to having three basic compositions: illusion/realism, formal structure, and narrative.
Joo receives some of her inspiration from anything including views outside her window, movies such as “Rear Window,” books, critiques, and of mythical stories of Greek painters.
Joo says that she surprises herself at times with how many hours she will spend working on a piece when she’s so drawn to the subject.
In time, she began working with lattice doors and bamboo blinds to incorporate her culture in with her artwork.
Joo enjoys feedback and the different conclusions and representations to her artwork. Because they are of windows, some are interpreted to be from the inside looking out, and some are thought to be from the outside looking in; she says it’s anyone’s interpretation. For more information on Leeah Joo, visit leeahjoo.com

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