I started a personal project entitled “Red Shoes Diary” in 2008, two years after I moved to Europe.  It was because I thought the way I worked in Europe as an artist strangely resembled the story of the famous Andersen fable “The red shoes”. The heroin Karen and I are so much alike.  I came all the way to Europe just because I became captivated with arts and became an artist.  I could not stop painting despite all the obstacles I faced and the wounds I got in the foreign land. It is also because I was convinced that it would be the perfect concept to go with my pictorial motifs, mature women’s feet and shoes.

The series is, however, a contemporary fable, and not meant to entirely follow the old enlightenment fairy tale.  While Karen committed a sin and angered the God, I did not do anything wrong.  It is not that I cannot take the shoes off, but I choose not to take them off.  I have chosen to wear the red shoes.  The shoes would take us to the place where we have not seen.  The shoes would look good on us, the beautiful, smart, and brave women.  The shoes are for all the women who survive in today’s world.