by Sweta Baniya
KATHMANDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean artist Maia Ruth Lee has lighted up Nepal's Siddhartha Art Gallery with her paintings depicting several identities of a human being.
Her collection entitled "The Traveler" is hung on the walls of the Siddhartha Art Gallery in Babar Mahal, Kathmandu from May 16.
Ambassador of South Korea to Nepal Hong Sung Mog had inaugurated the exhibition on May 16.
There are 57 paintings hung in the art gallery, of which 11 paintings have already been booked for sale.
"It took me some three months to recollect my experiences as a traveler to depict the feelings in the form of art," Maia Ruth Lee, 27, told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Lee has spent most of her childhood in Nepal with her parents. She came here when she was five years old and left for South Korea after completing school.
In South Korea, she completed her degree in fine arts, and then spent nine years traveling around the world.
Lee said she wrote poetry for the first time and the poetry itself inspired her for art.
The poems are about seven characters that Lee created herself, namely, The Sleepwalker, The Lover, The Philosopher, The Daughter, The Believer, the Stranger, and The Outsider.
She said she wanted to create generality in her paintings incorporating every individual both male and female in her art.
The poetic lines that she has created are the base line of her paintings hanging in the wall. Her poems are confessional where she depicts an individual's identities in the form of words and in strokes and colors.
Some lines are taken from her travel journal as well. "I am always experiencing change, the concept of change is new concept of experience and traveler is the one who experiences changes on his every step," she said.
Her paintings showcases change in the individual's role and identities which one can easily notice.
"The seven different identities are the one we face in our daily life, sometimes we are stronger as a daughter, sometimes as philosopher, sometimes a lover; I want to mention these changes in my paintings," she added.
She expressed her delight that people were quite positive toward her paintings and she was receiving a nice feedback from them.
The exhibition will end on June 3, 2010.
