"Hwasil is an academy in Korea that I and a lot of teenage kids used to go in the 1990s-2000s where we were preparing for art school admission. It was quite intense training of drawings and painting but at the same time it was a place where a bunch of teenage kids hung out all day. I am not sure they still exist but that is a big part of my school age memory. It was a place where I have a very stressful (from training) and happy (with friends) memories at the same time.

Looking back, another thing that interests me is that even though the Hwasil culture is a very Korean thing (and some parts of Asia), we often painted a mixture of western and Korean objects and in techniques such as: watercolor painting of Venus head-bust and Korean copper kettle, dried Korean pollock next to Italian water glass, Korean black ink drawn stainless steel pots, etc. I am interested in how Western culture was imported into Korea and transferred into something very Korean." -- Woomin Kim