Young Summers

These painterly collage pieces are a continuation of my Beach Rock painting series. I was initially inspired by rocks on a deserted beach. Submerged in water, they reminded me of strange creatures pulsating with spirits, and inspired me to reimagine them on my canvas.

The idea behind my collages was to bring out the mysteriousness I felt about these rocks and make their strangeness even more vivid.

Each collage piece has several vignettes generated in the process, either intentionally or incidentally. They are like mini dramas within a bigger show and, when viewed as a whole, meant to heighten surreal feeling.

The way I see and express nature might have been influenced by shamanistic spirit that I had witnessed as a youngster in my old country.

Young Yun Summers is a Los Angeles based artist. She was born in Korea and came to USA as a high school student. She inherited a love of art from her family and always knew she would be an artist.

Majoring in design in fine arts, she earned her BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked in retail advertising for many years. However, her passion to be a serious fine artist was not pursued while she was working full-time and raising a family.

After her son went off to college to study piano, she finally decided to fully commit herself to art.

Young started out painting her favorite subjects, such as her family, trees, rocks, things in nature. Then, she began to incorporate collages, as a way to enhance her paintings. Soon the painterly collage took over and became her signature medium, garnering great responses and awards. Lately, her collages have become more sculptural and experimental. Finding beauty and harmony in most unexpected way from items soon to be discarded, while reducing waste and recycle are important aspects of her artistic life.