A Tale From a Tree My work engages familiar old stories and fairy tales as an attempt to examine the relationship between individuals. In my paintings, old trees become the storyteller of the old tales from my childhood. The theme for each work derives from an old tale, but the addition of scratch marks onto the scene transforms it into a new story. I wanted the relationships between the characters inside well-known tales to be interpreted differently depending on the viewer’s mind. I also placed the characters from different stories together in the same scene to show that even if every story takes place in its own time, place and occasion for the conflict between the characters, they are eventually directed to a single argument: relationships. The act of scratching is to peel off the accumulated layers of time. Old tales originate from the old times, but they apply to the present time as well. Early in this series, I used scratching to relieve myself from distress and unveil the essence of matters. Over time, scratching also seemed to reveal the concealed space and time. The old tales that have endured as long as the ancient trees, were already there when I was born, and will be there even after I am long gone. Only slight changes will be made along with the change of generations and the environment.