自我介绍

I am an artist living with my husband at this Lemon House Studio for 20years. I have four grandchildren. My son's family lives in Tokyo,Japan and my daughter's family lives in GwangJeou,China She majored in Fine Art and working as an Artist until today. She lived in Japan and the USA for many years. She raised her two children there. She continued her career as an artist too. I came back to Korea as the empty nesters and built my studio. Our dear friend and an architect, Kunio Kudo design the Lemon House 22 years ago. We share our philosophy on life and art. This made it possible for him to design the Lemon House that reflects me & my art. I believe in humbleness of life and art. I may not convey strong issues or messages in my art but it is simply a part of one’s everyday life. What you sense from your environment becomes an art itself. I am a passionate person but quiet in nature. I put values in perseverance & endurance. I am most proud of my family. We have had wonderful life together sharing tears and laughters. We love them. There are my main studio and gallery space on the same floor. We also have two raised floors that are open to the gallery space. One is large open kitchen & living space, and another one is a small library space which leads to the Lemon room. The master bedroom (Lemon room) is on the top floor. This master bedroom has a large lemon-shaped window which was manufactured based on my hand drawing. Lemon is a motif I often use for my art. When you lie down on the bed you can watch branches and leaves wave through the lemon window. You can also get the rising morning sun light through the window. Even though the Lemon House was designed as an unconventional house, our guests and our grandchildren loved playing & living ( for 2 years) in this house. After my daughter and son-in-law went to a small BnB ran by a retired couple in Baja, Mexico, she suggested to list the Lemon House on Airbnb. Having working only as a fine artist for the most of my life, I needed the courage to step out side of the box and try something new. My husband and I went through Airbnb sites and understood the core philosophy of sharing life & space. I think our experience of living abroad and having friends from different cultures helped us adopt the idea better and eventually gave us the boldness to give Airbnb a try. My husband and I had a simple life as a retiree and an artist. We though it was an exciting idea to meet people from different professions and even from different generations. I also wondered about what I have done for others in the past. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to share my life experience and encouragement to others at a place where guests can see my art & objects that reflect my life. My guests come to the Lemon house being happy, being sad, being challenged in life, being in love, wanting to celebrate, wanting to get rest, or wanting to create like me. They often look for a place to “belong” emotionally. I would listen to their stories and I share my stories too. They can find “belonging” through the times we share. Some guests may find it through physically being in the Lemon House through my artworks or in the nature. I hope for these guests to find some kind of answers here at the Lemon House. Before guests arrives I check their info on the accounts, or I find out more by chatting with them. I try to prepare things according to their needs. I also decorate home with wild flowers. I enjoy this process of preparing for the guests and it is an escape from the mundane. The Lemon House wasn’t designed nor decorated to be used as BnB. I believe candidness of sharing our 20 years of lives in this space is the reason I became the super host. Guests can experience how an artist think by visiting my studio. They can enjoy artworks at my gallery and find the same motives just out side of the window. They see all the dish, antiques, and photos that shows the history of our family. People love to see others’ lives through these. The Lemon House is minimally decorated with white walls and floors. I keep it simple and clean which many quests that lives in small city apartments dream of. Being a large house with tall ceilings, adjusting comfortable temperature can be a task. And we have a bathroom with no wall. But it is a charm of this house. I explain to my guests to enjoy the uniqueness of the Lemon house. We have a couple that visited us from Germany twice. The husband is an art teacher. They adopt a son when he was 3 years old from Korea. Their son started to work for a German company in Korea few years ago, and when the parents come to Korea to visit their son, they stayed at the Lemon House. We became good friends. We would go visit museums and walk around Seoul together. He even organized an exhibition for Korean & German artists in Korea. We had a chance to cook together with my daughter’s family too. The hosting helps us to stay healthy both physically and emotionally. We think of the hosting as service to others, which also heals us emotionally in return. It also gives us a fair amount of income, and some times my artworks get sold too. The Lemon House is an artwork itself. It’s a multi-media artwork.