Miscellaneous

Daily Vocab for Mom

Since August 1, 2016

I illustrated “Daily Vocab for My Mom” to improve my artistic abilities and help my mother. She is a Korean-American immigrant, who is always trying to improve her English. I started to create illustrations of words that she asked me to define for her. As art is universal, she has been sharing these images with all of her friends, who similarly want to improve their English. Since I first started in 2015, I have compiled what is now over 200 entries into an illustrated dictionary. The image shown is the cover art for the first of four published books.

Daily update

Unbreakable

2019
Chicken-wire, lighting, paper

This installation piece started as a sculpture, made with chicken-wire and paper, which portrays a mother and her child. In constructing this piece, I stepped out of my comfort zone in attempting to manipulate the stubborn materials. Additionally, the chicken-wire was hardly visible at a distance. In my attempt to sharpen the contrast of the image, I experimented by shining a light upon the figure and casting a shadow on the wall.

February 2, 2019/by admin

Miscellaneous, Vocabulary

2018 Fundraising – Book

Purchase Here!

Based upon my Daily Vocab for Mom series.

I am always looking for ways to improve my drawing skills, and I always want to branch out from my typical drawings and paintings. In my freshman year of 2015, my mom and I collaborated to create the perfect solution. My mom, being a proud first-generation Korean immigrant, often discusses with me the different nuances of specific words in the English vocabulary. As a result, I drew images and created sentences for terms that are more difficult to understand. After a while, these drawings were compiled into a book, and Daily Vocab for My Mom was born. In 2018, this vocabulary book consists of over 200 images and definitions.

Although the daily vocabulary words were in no particular sequence—other than the order that my mother came across them—for publication purposes, I have divided them into several books by their perceived order of difficulty.

My mom has shared this book with her friends in the Korean-American community, and they discuss each word and its respective illustration. However, I want this book’s purpose to transcend beyond my own community and impact the lives of many others who want to improve their English.

October 30, 2018/by brenden_koo

Acrylic, Collage, Miscellaneous, Pastel, Pencil, Watercolor

BarCoded, 2019

2019
11 x 15 in.
Mixed media

BarCoded is a mixed media double self-portrait that was experimentally created by using a combination of 7 different mediums–pencil, watercolor, oil pastels, colored pencils, acrylic paint, charcoal, and ink–on watercolor paper. This piece is inspired by the polarity of distaste and indifference, representing that the opposite of hatred is not love, but rather indifference for an outcome.

February 2, 2019/by admin

Acrylic, Miscellaneous

Vocabulary Book cover – Daily Vocab for My Mom Volume 2

Oil on canvas,
11 x 14 in.

November 20, 2018/by admin

Miscellaneous

Simplicity, 2018

Oil paint and oil pastel on canvas,
14 x 11 in.

Simplicity is an oil painting on canvas that I created at a local figure drawing studio, studying the bust of a live nude model. With this piece, I continued to experiment with abstracted color schemes, surfacing the model’s yellow undertones in her skin and emphasizing the red hues in her hair. I then went over the piece with oil pastels, creating dramatic and interesting lines over the painting to add character to the piece.

September 11, 2018/by brenden_koo