Loretta Park, a local contemporary artist, creates works that playfully engage the viewer on a 3-dimensional level. Often bright, colorful, and highly tactile in their nature, Park’s pieces utilize a wide range of materials and forms, seeking to explore the ways in which both tactile and visual elements are related and perceived by the viewer.
Born in Goshen, NY, the artist moved to Seoul, South Korea at the age of two and returned to the U.S. when she was fourteen. Given the divide and complications between expressing herself freely in both languages, Park found making art a way to convey those ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a refreshingly unrestricted sense. A 2016 graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she continues to create and share her work with Boston and beyond.
Loretta Park’s work is currently hanging in the gallery as part of our newest exhibition, ‘Coded‘, a group show curated by Aja Johnson featuring twelve additional artists. ‘Coded’ explores how artists convey and affect messages within their artwork, as well as the ways in which the audience perceives, internalizes, and passes on those same messages. We were lucky enough to have a chance to hear from Park and learn a bit more about her experience.
What was your path to becoming an artist? How did you develop your artistic style and how has it evolved over time?
I was pre-med in college and was determined to go to medical school. Then, I took a sculpture class during my first semester of college and decided that I’m going to do art. When I first started making, I used second hand fabrics as my only material. I wanted to speak about how I was manipulating second hand fabrics that have past stories and embedded memories. However, I quickly realized that I was choosing second fabrics because of their physical characteristics and I was not actually interested in altering the embedded memories of the materials. This realization allowed me to expand my material choices and now I used various items to create my abstract work including wood, plastic bags, vinyl, paper, broken glass, trimmer line, and push pins.
What inspires your work? How do you decide on a subject matter? Do you have any particular routines to motivate your creativity?
My work is based on the process of responding to colors, textures, and shapes. I create by adding or subtracting materials as a response to the previous mark that I made. My intuition and personal experiences inspire and drive my work and I really have to trust my own gut when I make. Too often, we disregard our intuitions and experiences as less than intellectual/academic research so I’m actively trying to trust myself more.
Routines? I drink liquids when I make — water, coffee, tea, and sometimes beer. I find myself constantly drinking something to motivate me. I also enjoy listening to murder mystery podcast or lisetning to music while I make.
Special thanks to Loretta for taking the time to chat with us! Make sure to visit the gallery to see her work, and so many others, from now until the show’s closing on September 26th. To keep up with Park’s work, follow on instagram @bertypark and her website http://www.lorettapark.com
For all other inquiries or to reach the gallery directly, message us at contact@beacongallery.com
Leave a Reply