I've been working on this for way too long after our trip to Korea this summer. I was born there, studied abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul in 2001, and have been back many times and am always inspired but never do anything with that inspiration until this time. I wanted to show the mix of traditional and modern. Jeonmo paper hats and janggu drums with black combat boots and double dutch braids. We played yut nori 윷놀이 (game with 4 wooden sticks you toss in there air like dice) with my in laws. I got my first tattoo there this summer amidst the rising tattoo culture in Seoul (I first got my stone name stamp 도장 in hangul the Korean alphabet and then a tattoo of that). The mountains depicted are from Irworobongdo, a folding screen painting featuring the 5 famous peaks of Korea (4 are in South Korea) and the sun and the moon and was always behind the king's throne during the Joseon era. We didn't hike any of the 5 famous peaks but we did hike beautiful Chiaksan to Seryeom falls, and drank lots of soju from modern green bottles and kimchi from onggi 옹기 clay pots. We rode the high speed KTX Eum train at 260km/h from Seoul to Wonju. We saw ocean waves at Gangmun beach and modern hanbok 한복 dresses (this one has short sleeves and a defined waist) worn around Gyeongbokgung 경복궁 royal palace in Seoul. Koreans adorn the shrines, temples, and hermitages with colorful dancheong 단청 design motifs. And of course we saw a lot of the taegeukgi 태극기, the South Korean flag with the red and blue 태극 swirl and 4 black trigrams in the corners. Everything I just mentioned is in this poster and if you haven't already, go visit Korea, especially since the won is so weak and currencies like the US dollar can buy so much there. And finally, heres the Vogue travel cover from 1918 that was my inspiration which oozes way more style and dynamism than I could ever hope for. Why can't we have covers like this anymore? You can buy this 24x36" poster HERE on my Society6 page, or in other sizes too. Thanks for looking and reading 감사합니다!
This summer I participated in the Global Cultural Heritage Ambassadors program~ back in June we had a fun opening ceremony in Gyeongbokgung palace, where we enjoyed some cultural presentations and quizzes, a tour of the palace, and finally an experience at the Saenggwabang, where they serve snacks and teas from historic recipes that the king himself would have enjoyed! 🍵I highly recommend making a reservation and visiting the tea room yourself if you are in Seoul anytime soon :)
I am going to start uploading some cultural posts here in addition to the hanja posts, but I will try to include useful Korean vocabulary and hanja analysis when it's relevant!
also if you want to follow on insta for any reason: aja.aja.hanja
Celebrating Chuseok, NCT 127 released 'surprise teaser' for their comeback 'Fact Check' teaser. All members dressed in Songzio SS24 Collection representing the Modern Hanbok looks in Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Doyoung looks stunning in this collection, it emphasize his broad shoulders and slim waist. Layer pants looks great on his tall body proportion. Orange suits doyoung so well!