I'm always drawing these like scenes of like you know there is hope or things are gonna

work out or be okay you know a lot of times people have asked me you know what's going

on you know why are you drawing what is this about you know what's the meaning behind this

and really you know I I'm just trying my best to understand why I draw what I draw.

That was Illustrator Ted Kim whose unique art style is known for its complexity and

imaginative scenarios. These scenes have a tendency to depict hope and optimism. He says

that this happened naturally motivated in part after he got in the habit of watching

documentaries that explored traumatic social issues and events of catastrophic global

failure. His art became his safety net his method of inspiring self preservation and

hope. Recently Ted has become more introspective about his life and his art. He's learned that

life may not play out exactly how he wanted to but and this is something he's been saying

a lot lately. Everything happens for a reason. So here he is Ted Kim. Welcome to Chatter

Marks. A podcast of the Anchorage Museum dedicated to exploring Alaska's identity through

the creative and critical thinking of ideas. Past, present and future. My name is Cody

Lyska and I'll be your host. How much drawing do you do in your free time? Well I think

that word free time is kind of a tricky one. You know I feel like the older I get the

busier I feel I feel like everything that I've been doing in my younger you know years which

I I consider to everything to be free time back then you know it was it during those times

I think I just I found what I really liked to do in life and I just I just haven't stock

and so I think these days it's a little different because you know it goes from like drawing

something for fun or for no reason to you know doing it for projects or you know collaborating

with people or commission work or stuff so there's still the you know the spirit of you know

...