My interview with creative Kate Bang, a visual artist
Visual artist Kate Bang on exploring cultural hybridity through painting, maintaining a disciplined daily practice, and trusting the process even through creative uncertainty
I interview Kate Bang, a visual artist and acrylic painter originally from South Korea who emigrated to Canada at age eight. Kate describes her creative process, which involves creating visual collages on the computer using photographic references in Photoshop, constructing the pictorial space she needs before translating it into paint.
She’s drawn to surrealist artists like Giorgio de Chirico, though she finds her own work tends to stay more in the realm of realism even as she dabbles with pushing further into surrealism. Kate’s work explores themes of cultural hybridity, and she shares insights about one of her striking pieces featuring a Korean market scene with fish, Korean melons, and a dress she owns, representing the layers of her identity – the Canadian exterior and the Korean background that’s never forgotten.
She maintains an incredibly disciplined practice, painting almost every day and filling her time with art-making. Kate opens up about how taking breaks actually creates anxiety for her because of the feeling of not getting enough work done, though being at the residency has given her space to rest with friends.
Kate experiences frequent moments of creative uncertainty, working through them by sitting with her sketchbook and thinking about elements that work with her theme. Her advice for beginning creatives is straightforward and encouraging:
…trust the process, practice constantly, and remember it’s never too late to start.
Kate Bang, Visual Artist
Interview
Introduction
MD: Hi Kate. Can you just start by telling me your name and where you come from?
KB: My name is Kate Bang and I come from Canada. I was born in South Korea and I immigrated when I was eight.
MD: And what is your creative discipline?
KB: It’s visual arts. I’m mainly an acrylic painter. I have made other kinds of work but my main focus and love is painting.
Creative process
MD: Can you tell me a little bit about your creative process?
KB: So what I do is usually I create like a visual collage on the computer, Photoshop. However, even with, I’ve done it with magazines but at the moment I usually use mostly photographic reference and collage them together and I create the pictorial space I need from that, those images.
Creative inspiration
MD: What is your, who or what is your creative inspiration?
KB: So I like to follow a lot of surrealist artists. I don’t have the guts to get to that point. Sometimes I dabble further and I would like to continue being more surrealist but for some reason my artworks continue to be more, kind of staying in the realism realm.
MD: Is there anyone or any kind of thing that you are drawn to for your creativity, for your art?
KB: Ah, uh, Giorgio the, oh my gosh, Giorgio, oh my gosh I’m blanking on the last name. Let me just, if I type Giorgio.
MD: While you’re doing that, can you just tell me a bit about the beautiful piece of art behind you?
KB: Oh yeah, this piece is a Korean market. I have fish in the foreground, Korean melons in the background. This is a dress that I own and in living in Canada wearing jean is kind of like a regular Canadian wear and I wanted to kind of showcase like even though like this is the outer shell of myself there is this like whole background of me and it’s not forgotten.
MD: I love that. Such a striking piece of art.
KB: Uh, well, Giorgio Di Circo.
Creative routine
MD: Tell me about your creative routine. Like how, do you have a routine? Do you paint every day?
KB: I paint almost every day. Usually back at home I wake up, paint, paint, paint, paint, paint, go to sleep.
MD: All day every day?
KB: Well, unless I have other work to do, but my time is filled with painting.
MD: Do you keep it to Monday to Friday?
KB: No, like every day.
MD: Every day. That’s amazing. And do you find that you need to have rests in between the time that you’re painting?
KB: Oh yeah, I have tried to rest but I think it stresses me out. Like I’m not getting enough work done. So that kind of anxiety pushes me to continue making work when I feel like I need a well-rested day. So thankfully this space kind of gives me those moments for friends to be like, come, hang out. I’m like, okay, fine.
MD: Do you ever have moments where you’re like, I’m not really sure what I’m going to paint next?
KB: Oh, all the time.
MD: And how do you get through those?
KB: I sit in front of my sketchbook and wait and think about elements and what does those elements work with my theme, which is I make works of cultural hybridity and that is a theme that I’ve been working with for the past forever. And yeah, that’s kind of my process.
Creative wisdom
MD: I love that. Can you tell me, if you were to meet someone who’s just at the beginning of their creative journey, just dipping their toe in, what piece of wisdom would you want to, or pieces of wisdom would you want to share with them?
KB: Trust the process. Practice, practice, practice. It’s never too late.
Connect with Kate Bang
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Podcast for creatives
If you haven’t discovered Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley podcast, I’d recommend having a listen. It has weekly drops of these bite sized episodes that feature creatives talking about their creative process, routine and inspiration. Each week has some great pearls of wisdom for everyone who is living or wishes they were living a creative life.