Who’s Schmoo?

Schmoo is a classically trained oil painter living and working in the UK. She studied in Italy and dislikes talking about herself in the third person.

Although I have had several career changes through the years and even wrote for a living, writing about myself has never been easy. I originally earned my BA and MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and spent my early days working in cancer research.

When I left the lab it was to realise my dream of the visual arts. As a professional photographer I got to travel the world and tell human stories in a beautiful way, which is a core part of being a creator that I still love to this day.

But over time the camera felt too quick, catching only a single moment out of many. And so I went back to basics, attending the Florence Academy of Art in Italy to study the drawing, painting, and material preparation techniques of the old masters in a traditional atelier environment.

In 2024 I graduated the certificate program and have since been painting from life & imagination in my studio in Wales.

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Light is an essential part of oil painting just as it is for photography. I aim to explore this in context of the human experience and through symbolism of visual storytelling.

Finally: As a first-generation Korean-American who has lived, worked, and studied in many countries, my personal work seeks to illustrate the experience of “The Other” and complex emotions in the struggle to belong.