6/21/13

Story behind LBEW and logo...

You might have wondered why I call my jewelry line, Little Big Excellent Whole.
It is a bit long and clunky, although I would like to think it has a nice ring to it. Maybe this little story will help you find the rhythm in it, too?

The secret is..... it's my name, literally. No joke. 
Here's the break down.
Paula = Little Haan =한 = 瀚 = Big Soo = 수 = 秀 = Excellent Junn = 전 = 全 = Whole 
==> Little Big Excellent Whole, is me!!

So then, where does the logo come from, you might ask? The short answer is, this also comes from my name. How egotistical of me, right? But hey, it's MY name! Deal with it. :)

The longer story is this: Back in 2004 I was taking a break from college and working at an international law firm in Korea. At this law firm my job as an intern was to translate legal documents from English to Korean and vice versa. I would like to think the process helped improve my English quite a bit, but I also got tired of dealing with the legal jargon in both languages pretty quickly. To keep my mind and heart busy, I decided to take a continuing education course at a local art museum called "Think Like an Artist." The course was taught by a renowned Economics professor at a University in Seoul, who also happens to be an avid art collector. It was quite an experience. A big part of me feels that this course served as a turning point for me in discovering myself as an Artist (of which process I'm still working on). Anyway, the main point that I took away from the course was that the Professor had a simple method of distinguishing a professional artist from an amateur, which was that a pro would never get sick of carrying out the same process that they are working on. They can keep going and going and keeping and keeping on, while an amateur would get bored of the process and stop. So the task that the professor gave us was to pick a "signature move" and repeat the process for the duration of the course (10 weeks) and see if we get bored of the process; and persevere even if we do get bored.
I thought long and hard about this. I wanted to pick something that I could not get bored of. Something Fascinating!! But then, I came back to the word "signature move," and a light bulb went off: SIGNATURE!! I was thinking to myself, I'd better not get sick of writing my own signature, let alone my own name! So that's where I started.
Why did I pick my Korean name instead of "Paula"?
It definitely wasn't because I preferred being called a certain name over the other.
The following is the thought process I had while deciding which name (in Korean...)
Paula 보다 한수가 더 친근 한 이유는 뭘까?왜 나는 Paula 라는 이름을 미국 친구들로부터한수는 한국 친구들로부터 불리기를 원할까?
미국에서는 내가 PAULA 답고 한국에서는 한수 답기 때문일까?
Paula는 자신만이 가지는 공간을 지배하지만 한수는 주위 공간에 따라 그에 맞추면서 바뀌어 간다.
Paula는 여성스럽고한수는 남성이 더 강하다
Paula의 A는 Paula를 여성으로 만들지만한수는 '한'과 '수'가 만났기 때문에 남성적인 image가 강해진다.
Paula는 그 위에 글을 덮어 쓸 자유와 여유를 주지만,한수는 허락하지 않는다.
한수는 이름자체가 mixed media, 예술Paula 는 그 속으로부터 예술을 분출
Translation:
Why is "수 (HaanSoo; HS)" more familiar/friendlier/approachable than "Paula"?Why do I prefer being called Paula from my American friends, but HS from my Korean friends?Is it because I am like a Paula ("Paula-esque") in the states, and I am like a HS ("HS-ish") in Korea?
"Paula" dominates the space she is in, while HS adapts to the space she goes into.Paula is feminine, and HS is more masculine*.The A in Paula makes the name feminine.HS has more a masculine tone because of the combination of Haan and Soo.Paula, visually speaking, gives you freedom and space to write over it,but HS does not allow it.
In the name HS itself, it is mixed medial; artPaula expresses the art within.
*HaanSoo is traditionally a boy's name in Korea. Comparable to Richard or John.






So I started writing 수 over and over again. I eventually got bored of it, so I decided to design something out of it, like put it all on one line. and then put it in a box, and then make it three dimensional, and then and then and then......

After a while, I noticed that I was obsessed, completely consumed by this mark-making process. 

At the end of the course, each student had "something" that they had been working on that they were equally obsessed with as much as I was with my name.

So then the art museum sponsoring the course decided to let us use their art gallery, and we had an exhibit!!








So my little things were in the exhibit, too. Oh, yes I made 3-D objects with my name. It was cool. 



And this is what ended up sticking with me. Now I have a stamp of it and all that jazz..... I might actually get a tattoo of it too someday.


But there it is. The story behind LBEW.


What do you think of that?

1 comment:

Pleuni said...

Love it!