Wednesday, January 30, 2013

sancheong superstars



One of my closest girlfriends here in SoKo had a photo show this past December, so a bunch of us traveled to her town of Sancheong to attend the opening.

Jaimie is a film & lit grad from New York City and is also here teaching English for the year. Her love affair with her placement began early, and as I began to follow her tumblr of stark images of her rural town, it wasn't hard to become a fan of her eye for shape, color, and lines. 

Sancheong is a small town in the province of Gyeongnam, located in the southeast part of Korea. The Honest Bear Cafe (솔직한 곰) is its gem of a coffee shop, and Jaimie has become close friends with its owners - adorable husband and wife, Jae Eung and Hyun Ok. They had recently wrapped up a show of paintings by their artist friend and the timing was perfect to have another. Jaimie's photos chronicle the simple ugly-beauty of Sancheong - the decrepit, the decay, the dilapidation... but also the vibrant color, the golden hour light and shadow, and nature's "finishes" on practically every surface.

Here are some of my favorites from her blog, Heroically Lost and Found.








Old friends, new friends, home-brewed beer, food aplenty, and live music thanks to my two favorite jammers Gin and Emmers.

Cafe owner Hyun Ok gathers the crowd and opens the show
Il Ho, the painter, passes off the torch with a few kind words
The star of the evening
Never-ending refreshments courtesy of the cafe owners 
One of our new friends brought a batch of home-brewed beer! Delicious
Jae Eung, left, and beer master, center

Ginna brought her guitar. Wonderful live music ensued.

My girl
The Fantastic Four
We quickly drained the supply of home brew and had to downgrade to Cass
True love

I'm so happy to be able to share two snippets of what we were treated to that night - Sancheong Superstars, live at the Honest Bear Cafe.

First up, EmJem. A cool bundle of feist, Emily is a fellow Canadian who has sadly wrapped up her six-month contract in Korea. She is currently Japan-bound before heading back home to pursue an acting career. All the best, booger!



Next, Gingin. Ginna is a chick of many talents, from illustration to video production to songwriting.. and her submission to Korean expat art magazine, [b]racket was recently accepted - watch out for her beautiful work in the next issue! Congratulations, girl.



Don't you all wish you had been there that night? I've been blessed.

The following morning we all awoke entangled in Jaimie's bed and still wearing the clothes and coats from the night before - haha wild.

Ginna in deep thought
Happiness
I'm with the band...
 
Pretty pretty lunch

Tri-city New Years weekend is up next. 
Oh and by the way, I've been to Bali and back with some of my favorite people - so add those photos to the list ;)
x

No comments: