Van Gogh Reborn!

“Uh…” 

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“I’m Mirae.
Hun’s mom and dad’s friend and your grandfather’s student.”

Is she sick? 

I’ve heard of blood tears, but I’ve never seen black tears before.

“Isn’t our Hun very strong? Mom and Dad will be very happy in heaven.”

Smiling woman with black tears.

I know you’re trying to comfort me, but I want to keep my distance.

“ It’s fine.
You can cry Hun.”

If I had been a child, I would have cried.

I didn’t want to get close to her, so I pulled back, but the woman named Mirae suddenly grabbed my hand.

“Grandpa.… Grandpa!”

“What happened Hun.?”

When I turned my head to ask for help, Grandpa, who went in to wipe his tears came out, saw Mirae, and smiled absurdly.

“He heh.
If you are like that you might appear in Hun’s dreams.”

“Wha…..Why teacher?”

Grandpa rescued me from her and pointed her to the bathroom.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

After a while I heard her scream.

I asked, calming my surprised chest. 

“The tears were black…”

“Haha.
It’s because of makeup.
There’s no way people’s tears can be black.”

When I was living in France, I heard that some women sometimes make eyelashes or paint around their eyes.

I didn’t know it was this bizarre.

________________

While waiting for the pizza, I was drawing, and suddenly Mirae came and spoke to me.

“What are you doing?”

I showed her what I have been drawing and she recognized it at a glance.

“Is it  Painting of sleeping bird? Do you know about the Jo sok’s Painting of sleeping birds?”

 

She’s a university professor, so she found out right away. 

Even though she looks younger, she has amazing knowledge.

“I saw it for the first time today.”

The painter Jo sok knew better than anyone how to use a brush.

The shape of the branches and the way the birds are grooming cannot be more lovely than this.

“Oh my gosh.
It’s exactly the same.
Do you always practice like this?”

“Yes.
If I draw along, I can see why the composition was made this way.
Lines and contrasts.”

“That’s great.”

“Isn’t everyone does like that?” 

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I’m surprised that she said something that is so normal as great.

“Well.
There are a lot of people who see a picture and draw as it is, but there aren’t many cases where they deeply think about what the intention is.”

Drawing without thinking is meaningless.

But since everyone can’t be the same, I roughly agreed and picked up the brush.

“You seem to like ink paintings.” 

Mirae spoke again.

“ It’s easy and at the same time very deep.”

“Hmmmm?”

“They only drew trees and birds without any other background.
It seems simple if I focus only on the birds.”

“ok.”

Mirae responded so that the story could continue.

“But I am not sure where this bird is or what condition it is in.
I think it’s picking on its feathers, but the book says that it’s sleeping.”

“Ok.”

“The way the branches are expressed is also wonderful.
There is no hesitation in the brush.
It looks simple, but it is a texture that can only be thought of as wood.
It’s worth studying because it can appear that way even though they have omitted so many.”

When I finished speaking, Mirae smiled.

“Awesome.  Hun is really smart child…isn’t he?”

I’m not used to hearing compliments often. 

Although I receive excessively from grandpa, it is a first time I got from others.

Am I a little excited?

I said something she didn’t even ask.

“The picture of this man’s son is also interesting.” 

“son?”

“Yes.
He drew a composition similar to that of Painting of Sleeping Birds, which his son Jo jiwoon drew.”

I turned over a few pages of the book I was reading and found Jo Jiwoon’s Painting of Sleeping Birds.

“Really ?”

“I think the seasons are different.
The expression became more delicate, and it further developed his father’s drawings.”

“Yeah.
Beautiful.”

They are truly wonderful fathers and sons, and at the same time, they seems to have a relationship as Teacher and a student.

I started drawing the picture again.

“Hun.”

I don’t know why, but Mirae looked at me happily and opened her mouth.

“Why don’t you do an exhibition with your drawing.?”

Did I hear it wrong?

“An exhibition?”

“Yes.
It’s an exhibition focusing on people who haven’t published their paintings.
I think it would be nice to hang a work of Hun, how about it.?”

I don’t know what this person sees in me.

But I cannot miss the opportunity that has come. 

“I will.” 

“Great.”

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She is a nice smiling person.

“You can draw a picture for the exhibition before the first Saturday of next month.
If you couldn’t finish on time, you can give me a painting you already drew.”

I nodded my head and smiled back at the smiling Mirae.

About 3 weeks left, then, I have plenty of time to draw a new one.

“Then I will tell the conditions to be followed while drawing.”

“Conditions?”

“Yes.
Conditions.”

“One,  not to copy the drawing of another work.”

Of course.
It’s a given.
Why put it as a condition.

“And draw what Hun likes the most.”

“It’s not a themed exhibition.
So many people’s painting will be exhibited along with Hun’s painting!”

If it is a joint exhibition with several artists, it can attract attention only when individuality is prominent.

It’s time for the best picture of mine.

______________

“Grandpa.”

Grandpa is sitting on a massage chair and sleeping.

“Grandpa…Grandpa…wake up!”

“Huh? What, what…., did the pizza come?”

“I want to use canvas and oil paints.”

“Now..?”

“Yes.
Can I use it?”

“okay.
It doesn’t matter what you draw.
So what are you going to do draw?”

“I’m going to paint an oil painting.”

“haha.
Are you tired of ink painting now?”

“No.
Ink painting is more fun the more you study it.”

“then?”

“ Mademoiselle Mirae suggested that I exhibit at the exhibition.

When I turn my head to ask for a response, she had a stupid expression on her face.

I hope she don’t mean to pretend that she don’t know  about the promise she just made.

“Heh heh heh.
This guy, what Mademoiselle Mirae?”

“Then How do I call her?”

“ You have to call her Aunt.”

Doesn’t that feel way worse?

Even though I’m in a child’s body, my age is 36 and calling someone younger than me as aunt is more uncomfortable than calling her by name.

“ S….Stop it……Teacher!”

Both me and Grandpa were surprised.

It’s the first time I’ve heard such a loud voice.

“I’m still only twenty-nine!” 

Grandpa avoids Mirae’s gaze.

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I heard that they’re teacher and a disciple, but still it’s scary.

She looks at me and smiles.

“You can call me teacher.
I’m here to teach Hun how to draw.”

It is better to be an angry person when you are angry, but it is dangerous to be able to laugh when you are angry. 

“I am grateful, but I will decline.” 

“Huh? Why?”

Can’t say because it’s scary.

“There are many teachers.
Everyone here is a teacher.”

I said while holding a collection of ink paintings. 

“There are things you don’t know about.
It would be very easy if a teacher teaches you..Isn’t it?”

“The answer is probably not just what Mademoiselle Mirae teaches.
The answer to an Art is as many as there are people who see it.”

There are many painters I admire, but I have never specifically sought instruction from them.

Their way of thinking, ideologies, and emotions can all be found in paintings.

There is no need to listen to the artist’s ideals in words.

Words hurt the moment you spit them out. 

I do not want to accept a sentence that strongly interferes with someone’s reason as it is.

If I had considered it an easy and right path, I would have entered the academy long back.

“It is enough just to look at the paintings I like.
I can understand it by drawing it like this.”

Mirae seemed shocked.

“Teacher, is he really ten years old?”

“Ha ha ha ha! He’s like me.
A genius by birth..
right, hun?”

“It’s not something you can decide like that.
Then what about college.?”

Mademoiselle Mirae worries about my college.

“I’m not going.” 

“That’s good too.”

Grandpa says anything I say is good.

“Hun.
Going to college is a great thing.
Don’t you want to study your favourite painting? Knowing a lot about painting.”

“I can find everything I want in the picture.”

“Some are hard to find, and some are hard to understand just by looking at the pictures.”

“Finding hidden things is fun, but what fun is it when someone teaches me.
And when someone tells me the answer, I don’t look for it any more.”

“Hahaha! Yes.
Yes.”

Grandpa laughs and laughs.

“And I am not interested in things that cannot be understood through pictures alone.”

Mirae opens her mouth slightly and tilts her head.

“That’s not the picture I want.”

The act of painting.
What I want to say, what I want, and my thoughts and feelings are conveyed through pictures rather than words.

A picture that is not understood by others is lonely.

I have felt that despair deep in my bones.

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Mirae, who looked at me without a word, smiled.

“ I like your way of thinking .”

She didn’t say anything else. 

Even trying to convince me, she didn’t say that she was right.

How many people can be so honest with a 10-year-old child?

How should you draw a picture?

What kind of paintings are popular these days? 

That’s the problem with your picture.

She is a different person from those people who say like that.

“Too bad.
I wanted to study art with Hun.”

______________

As soon as Professor Mirae ate the pizza, she went to the studio, where Ko Hun was staying with the oil paints and canvas.

They had only been together for a little over two hours, but she could see how serious that little boy was with his paintings. 

She then turned her head towards her teacher Ko Sooyeol and said.

“I’m worried.
I don’t know if it’s really good not going to a school, but if he didn’t have a diploma, there will be restrictions to his career.”

Professor Ko sooyeol nodded his head. 

“But I know for sure that he will have a hard time because of the art forced in the form of entrance exams, but I can’t force him, and it’s a waste to have him draw according to a set frame.”

Professor Mirae has seen too many students who were tired of the art because of the entrance exam.

In some cases, children with excellent senses lost interest while trying to fit themselves into the frame of art for entrance exams.

It was not just a Korean problem.

She studied in England and France, they too had similar type of problem.

And the thing she’s most worried about right now is the pressure.

The tendencies pursued by those who do modern art and Ko Hun’s thoughts are completely different.

Contemporary artists who viewed their work as merely ‘to make a sensation’ did not want their work to be understood.

The emphasis was placed on what could be said to make it trending.

In such an atmosphere, when she think of how much pressure Ko Hun will face in the future, she can’t help but worry.

Ko Sooyeol, who was listening to her, said with a smile.

“Well.
I don’t know.”

“What…?”

“This trend, which has been twisted somewhere, may change someday.
right?”

“Yes, but……”

“Don’t worry ahead of time.
If Professor Mirae, the students who follow Professor Mirae, and children like Hun eagerly desire art that communicates, the flow can change again.”

Ko sooyeol believed in the shocking impression he had received from his grandson’s painting.

He thought Ko Hun’s paintings will be loved.

The knowledge he had accumulated over a long period of time and his soul as an artist spoke to him.

“By the way.”

“Yes….?”

“Why are we speaking in French even now? Isn’t it a bit uncomfortable?”

“……………..”