In 1895, my father, Julian Chun Suph Park, was born in San Francisco. SInce large numbers of Koreans did not come to America until 1903, Korean American authorities believe Dad to be the first Korean born in America. Our family website will tell their story and that of our Korean grandparents. Their story obviously helped to shape mine.
As a third generation Korean American, I grew up with little knowledge of Korea or its rich culture. When I became interested in ceramics, now more than 50 years ago, I learned that Korea has a very exciting, profound and influential ceramic history. It was then that I began to research Korean ceramics more deeply. My sabbatical in Korea, plus studying under two Japanese masters who were greatly influenced by Korean ceramics and many trips to Korea and Japan since, with Mary, my wife, strengthened that research.
Thirty plus years ago I went to Icheon, one of Korea’s great pottery villages, to learn more about Korean ceramics and improve my potter’s skills. There I began to unravel the mystery of Korean ceramics and lay the groundwork for my understanding of the broader and deeper aspects of Korea’s arts and culture..
Mary was an art teachers and I taught ceramics at a university. When we used the Korean forming processes in our classes we discovered remarkable improvement over the work our students and other students were producing using the forming processes they had learned from others. In 1996 we received a grant to teach these Korean ceramic processes to teachers. Those teachers made the same discovery. The Korean forming processes, both hand building and throwing were easier to learn and helped the student achieve a higher lever of work more quickly.
As we continued to give workshops, interest in traveling to Korea grew. Our workshop participants asked us to take them to Korea. Our first tour was in 1997. Since that time Mary and I have been to Korea more than twenty times. Incidentally, our Korean Ceramic Workshops are still available.
Because our tours were so successful, the County of Gangjin, Korea asked us to form groups of ceramic artists and teachers and bring them to Gangjin. In addition, they promised to help pay the land cost, present hand’s-on workshops conducted by master Korean ceramic artists and, during the Gangjin Celadon Festival, exhibit the artist’s work. What a deal! For the last several years we have hosted sponsored International Ceramic Artist’s Tours to Korea. In addition Morning Earth Korea joins Gangjin in subsidizing these special tours. The exhibit and workshops with partially subsidized Korean Ceramics tour is now juried. Visit our Gangjin specific blog or contact us for details.
Our interest in tours has evolved. We realized that no matter what we said or wrote about Korea, its arts and culture, nothing would be as effective or as lasting as actually being there. But just being in Korea and seeing the sights would not be enough. After living and working in Korea and during the many years of research travel there we have met and become friends with many artists and scholars. Many but not all of them are ceramic artists. They in turn introduced us to their friends many of whom are artists in other fields. Since our research took us to some of the best artists in Korea including many Human Cultural Treasures and other highly respected artists they are the ones whom we can now call our friends and acquaintances. It is this network of people scattered throughout Korea that we began to visit. They are among the most respected artists in Korea and specialize in many areas of the arts. Now, through our contacts we have gained access to literally hundreds of Korea’s best artists from many fields. Those contacts allow us to have what we believe to be unparalleled access to Korea’s arts and culture. Join a Morning Earth Tour for a remarkable adventure in Korea.
