Heeyun Kim '14, Comic Arts | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Heeyun Kim '14, Comic Arts

I define myself as a visual storyteller who is strongly interested in discussions about changes and internal transformations through stories and sequential images. My academic and studio practice at MCAD is focused on understanding the “transformation” as an instinctive and embodied characteristic of human life.

I concentrate on the value and function of transformation in both the narrative and visual aspects of comics and its illustrations. In my research, transformation represents the changes in one’s internal reckonings based upon accumulated experiences and knowledge. For example, in a narrative structure, unless the characters meet in transformative moments or experiences, or do something that sets up a causal chain, nothing will happen and there will be no story. Characters create certain incidents as they interact with other characters, just like people in reality, in the experience of living making things move forward. Stories are reflections of reality.

Understanding transformation in comics in both narrative and drawn expressions can produce the understanding of actual human life. I believe that for readers, it may help to engender problem solving skills and growing emotional strength to deal with obstacles.

I construct visual and narratives by focusing on relations and interactions between characters or narrative elements. Each interaction between characters must have a reason, and the reason can be an internal or external one – requiring different tactics of representation. I try not to decide what characters are, but what they do. This technique of representing character interactions becomes the very beginning of the character and narrative development.

Categories