[One Thousand Characters a Day] Author Jo Wonjae's 'Life Shines Through Art' <5>

Editor's NoteThere is one clear commonality in the walks of artists. Walking has become the spiritual material of art. What would their art have been like if walking had not been part of their daily lives? Could they have created the desired results of their process? Countless walks, seemingly insignificant, taken every day in daily life. Through this act, they gain healthy influence and inspiration for their work, becoming a new existence every day. Artist Jo Wonjae says, “If a walker wants, dreams, and hopes, they might create and throw something to the world based on new senses, new thoughts, new realizations, new feelings, and new inspiration gained through walking.” Word count: 978 characters.

Walking itself brings joy. The body stepping outside the house?that is leaving a closed space and meeting an open world. Inside the house, senses are limited to the space within, but the moment you step outside for a walk, your senses awaken refreshingly, perceiving a vast space that pierces the sky and extends to the universe. Walking through such an open space, you suddenly feel that your small self coexists with the vast world.

The charm of walking lies in the act of walking. Calling a brief walk a stroll feels a bit insufficient. It feels right to walk for about an hour to truly experience a walk. Walking for an hour means covering roughly around 5 kilometers. Through such a walk, you realize that your body was quite cold at the start. Blood circulation was not smooth; it was as if the body was in a shutdown state like a machine. But as you walk, you can feel warmth gradually spreading throughout your body. Unconsciously, your fingertips swell red. Blood has started to circulate. The stagnant energy gains vitality, and before you know it, your fingertips and toes become warm and trembling with heat. Fresh blood and energy circulate pleasantly throughout your body. The simple act of walking for about an hour, the ‘change in my body’ that walking offers, is gratefully felt by the walker. The experience that my body is alive.

(Omitted)

The countless landscapes by Van Gogh that we love could not have been born without the countless repeated walks in daily life. If he had not enjoyed walking, how could he have savored the scattering of the sun slipping beyond the earth? How could he have known how it blends with the yellow wheat fields to hold a golden festival? If he had not walked with a heart that loved nature, how could he have discovered the cypress tree blazing like a green fireball? If he had been indifferent to the countless small creatures everywhere, could he have painted a butterfly whose wings were dyed green, intoxicated by fresh wild grass?

－Jo Wonjae, Life Shines Through Art, Dasan Chodang, 18,800 KRW