Postmodernism, 57.1 pg. 35

yohan kim

March 7, 2025

Yohan Kim is senior working towards a Bachelors in Fine Art. He works primarily in oil and digital painting, and has been featured in Dialogue several times. His work has been featured most recently in Dialogue Vol. 57.1, see Tempter (pg. 20), and Postmodernism (pg. 35). Yohan sat down with Dialogue staff member Horacio Portillo Diaz and Dialogue Editor-in-Chief Levi Huizenga to discuss his work, his time at Calvin, and his goals after graduation.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Levi: Where did you grow up? When did you start making art?

Yohan: I was originally born in Korea, but at the age of three I started living in Turkey with my parents. I was a very energetic kid; my mom had a hard time dealing with me. The best way she found was to give me a sketchbook and a pen. It was a way for me to channel my energy, my thoughts, and my crazy ideas that I couldn't say or act out. Over time it became very natural, just a kind of self-expression.

L: How has the concept of your work, your art, developed?

Y: I always knew that art was something I was interested in. In middle school, I wanted to become a video game artist. I thought that the greatest art was made to serve video games. That meant a lot of fantasy characters, a lot of digital painting. I didn't really understand the more conceptual aspect of art. At Calvin, I learned art could be something other than entertainment, which was the boundary I had in my head. That boundary was broken and then expanded through my BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) classes, having professors talk to me one-on-one, receiving critiques from them. They would force me to do abstract art, which is the complete opposite of where I was coming from. I didn't even know what abstract really meant. It was really tough at first, but it expanded my perspective.

Horacio: What's a discipline you’ve learned in your BFA classes that you never thought you'd break into?

Y: Oil painting. That was difficult because I came from completely digital work, where there’s no cleanup after you paint, no color that you can't pick, you’re not limited by money to buy paint. You feel so powerful. Then I came to oil painting, and the oil almost felt muddy compared to the stylus that I would use on a tablet. On a tablet I could just make strokes flawlessly without any resistance, but oil posed a challenge for me. It's like fighting this material that doesn't want to listen to me. It just forced me to grow.

L: What are some ways that you've seen that growth? Can you tell me about anything you've made that you think, “I couldn't have possibly made this with the skills that I came in with?”

Y: Tempter, an oil painting I submitted to Dialogue last semester. I don't picture myself making that if I hadn’t come to Calvin and taken these difficult classes. I made it while I was in Advanced Painting, it was the last piece I made. Before that I think I made like 60 pieces that didn't really amount to anything, pieces that got no reaction. For me, that class felt like going through winding roads that didn’t lead anywhere, but then finally something sparked. With Tempter I felt like I had finally made something I actually cared about apart from whatever my professors would say. My middle school self would look at that painting and think, ‘This is it.’ That piece is really valuable to me.

Tempter, 57.1 pg. 20

L: Has all this time with oil painting and other mediums changed the way you do digital art?

Y: After I finished advanced painting there was a period where I just felt like I didn't want to make anything for a while. Those paintings were so different from who I knew myself to be, and what I knew my capabilities to be. I was a bit confused, and kind of estranged from digital art. It seemed somehow lesser. The digital work I made, a lot of it was characters from anime or video games. Even in high school, anime art felt so forced, but those oil paintings that I did for myself never felt forced. They actually came naturally; I would stay up at night to paint those. But it’s confusing, it's a really vulnerable practice. I haven’t made a painting since Tempter. I felt like I put everything onto that canvas and now I’m just wondering what's next. I've been staring at empty canvases that I have in my room. Picking up the brush, it feels so much weightier now.

L: What has Dialogue meant to you while you've been at Calvin? When did you first submit and get in?

Y: Dialogue was definitely not my priority as a freshman, I didn’t really care about it. I spent a year in the military in Korea, and then I started submitting sophomore year when I came back. The first piece to get in was a digital art piece that I made in high school called Realization of Love. It had a special place in my heart because it was a piece expressing my love for my dad, knowing that he loves me, even though he might not communicate that well. When it got accepted I didn't really think much of it until I saw the journal in my hands. I saw my submission, and then I saw that it was something special. It's not like other places I’ve posted work, like online communities where it’s up for a day and then gets wiped away by hundreds of other pieces. The fact that it captures moments and that it can be revisited and celebrated by those people who were a part of it in that specific period of time, I think that's super cool.

Realization of Love, 55.1

L: Tell me about that piece you did after, the portrait of the girl. That’s my favorite of yours, I thought it was just beautiful.

Y: That’s my girlfriend in the painting. It was my way of expressing my love. It’s based off of a photo I took of her in front of a pho restaurant. She was looking at her phone for directions, and I just thought the photo captured something about her that I was really attracted to. The light from the phone shining on her face is red, which kind of informed the pink background. None of my other paintings are pink. It was the fullest expression of my love, my affection for her.

L: What's next, Yohan? You graduate in May?

Bloom, 56.2

Y: That’s right. I applied to some grad schools for a Master of Fine Arts. If that doesn't work, I'm going to be looking for jobs in the States. If that doesn't work, I'm going back to Korea. Hopefully I won't be homeless.

L: Well, good luck. Thanks for sitting down and talking to Horacio and me.

Y: Of course, thank you.