Exclusive Interview With Siana Sunghee Park, 3rd Prize Winner of the Digital Art Award, 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
Fairy tales have become almost synonymous with childhood. We are all familiar with the tales; the handsome prince awakens his soon to be bride from her deathly slumber, the ferocious swamp dwelling ogre saves the princess from her tower, the young girl is saved from the wolf by the huntsman. All of these tales have one thing in common, it always ends with its happily ever after. But what if it didn’t? What if we went back to the roots, putting the “grim” back in Grimms’ Fairy Tales? Siana Sunghee Park has done just that in her dark fantasy painting ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’, a haunting reminder to us all that not ever fairy tale has its happily ever after. In fact, more often than not, it ends in horror and tragedy, with a touch of ambiguity.
Photoshop
3rd Prize Winner
Digital Art Award Beautiful Bizarre Prize 2024
South Korean artist Siana Sunghee Park is a concept artist and illustrator currently based in Los Angles. Siana has worked in a variety of traditional mediums including oil, charcoal and watercolour, especially during her time studying Illustration at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. Currently, she specialises in digital art using fantasy and sci-fi themes to facilitate her interest and exploration of human emotion in evocative yet aesthetically pleasing ways. Since 2014, Siana has been working in the entertainment industry and has created works for companies including Kojima Productions LA, UbisoftSF, DICE LA, DNEG and Luma Pictures.
Last year, Siana entered into the 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize with her digital painting ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’ which would earn her the 3rd Prize win in the Digital Art Award category. Using photoshop, Siana depicts the story of a noble women and her knight as she chooses the most tragic ending for the both of them. Her golden goblet, filled with poisoned wine, flows into the both of their throats. The knight accepts his fate, and on the cusp of death, knows only peace. Is this a sad ending? Or is it, in fact, a happy one?
Being an artist you often battle with endless self-doubt and bottomless solitude. I’d like to encourage any artists struggling with such problem to come out and enter the Art Prize.
Interview with Siana Sunghee Park
First of all, I just want to say a huge congratulations to you in your success in winning the 3rd Prize Digital Art Award! How did you feel when you found out you had won?
I deeply appreciate to receive such an honourable prize. I have never participated in any art competition ever since I graduated from an art school and had been being a hermit for a long time. It was my first attempt in forever to knock on the door that connects myself to the world out there, and receiving the prize felt like a very kind answer to that saying, “welcome to the world”.
Why did you decide to enter the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize?
The ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’ was already finished before I decided to submit it for the Art Prize. Around early summer the idea of looking into the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize randomly popped up in my head. I was feeling ready to break out of my cave and that felt like one way to step forward. I’ve known about their magazine and the Art Prize from the social media feed, and I thought, “beautiful bizarre” totally sounded like the piece I just finished. So I quickly searched if they had the Art Prize happening this year and I figured I wasn’t late for submitting one.
Who are some of your biggest influences?
I always try to find artistic inspiration from the old masters. Joaquín Sorolla, Anders Zorn, and John Singer Sargent are my most favourite and recently I’ve started finding my heart attracted to more impressionistic paintings like Claude Monet’s pieces that embraces more abundant range of colors. Other than those traditional painters I also love the illustrator John Bauer’s serene watercolour illustrations as well.
Upon first viewing ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’, it reminded me of ‘The Accolade’ by Edmund Blair Leighton with a much darker twist. Did ‘The Accolade’ have any influence on your painting?
‘The Accolade’ is included in my medieval fantasy Pinterest board. It depicts medieval era in such a romantic way, I’m sure everyone who loves medieval theme also loves Edmund Blair’s ‘The Accolade’. But it wasn’t a direct influence of my painting this time. ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’ took some direct inspiration from several paintings by Edwin Austin Abbey, which depicts some of Shakespearean tragedy with more subdued and solemn atmosphere.
What was the process like for creating ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’? Did you know the story you were going to tell from the very beginning or did the story unfold as you developed the painting?
Usually, I start a painting with an image in my head. I focus on visualising that slice of moment and as I paint my brain starts expanding the story behind it; what the situation would be that made the noble lady drink the poisoned wine, the knight’s emotion and his position in all that matter and so on. Once the characters are assigned with a few characteristics they become alive and start telling me their stories.
When browsing some of your other works I noticed that ‘Epilogue of a Tragedy’ is part of a personal project of yours which explores dark medieval fantasy. Is this a genre that you feel a strong personal connection to?
I’ve been interested in so many different themes and genres, but I tend to come back to the medieval theme all the time. I grew up reading fantasy novels with medieval influence, and I’ve been always more attracted to stories with serious and dark undertone. And one day I just realized I had never put any serious effort into making such images on my own. So it started with the piece that won the prize. The project has been developing quite slow since I have a scatterbrain, want to do million things at once, but I hope to continue whenever I have an image popping up in my head.
You work as a concept artist and illustrator in LA and have worked with companies including Kojima Productions, Luma Pictures and Ubisoft SF. How did you first get into concept art? Is it something you have always wanted to do?
I went to an art school, AAU, in San Francisco and an internship at Ubisoft SF was my first job at a game studio. I grew up playing games especially lots of MS-DOS games, and ever since I saw my older brother playing PC games with emphasis on their narratives, it got me interested in becoming a concept artist. I was strongly intrigued by the idea of having characters and world I create becoming alive in the media. As a fresh graduate I was very nervous about getting a job within a limited timeframe, but I was lucky enough to get the first internship, and the opportunities came one after another.
What does the current landscape look like for concept artists and illustrators especially now with the rise of AI in the entertainment industries? Has it changed for better or worse since you first started?
The rise of AI came at the worst possible time for artists in the industry. There’s an ongoing recession happening and companies must find ways to cut costs. Countless studios had been shut down and laid off thousands of workers, and AI art gives companies good excuses. Although AI is not the direct cause, majority of companies are now favoring AI workflow due to the same reason, without knowing if it’s useful for actual problem solving or not. Companies or clients don’t care about the process, they only look at the result and how cheap and fast it was. There are reasonable ways to utilize AI tools as a concept artist and the technology itself has countless positive potentials, however, in our current society the tools are being used in a way that it confronts the meaning of human existence. As a professional artist I’ll try my best to accommodate my clients’ needs if it’s absolutely necessary to use AI, but as an individual artist I’ll never touch any of it for my personal art. Whenever I think of this topic it deeply saddens me, and I feel we’re already living in a dystopian world.
Your Instagram features a few sketchbook spreads, is keeping a sketchbook a vital part of your practice?
I sketch with pencils on and off whenever I remind myself about it. Mainly being a digital artist it’s easy to forget how meditating using traditional medium is. As I was introduced to digital tools I spared less and less time on physical sketchbooks. Whenever I get back to sketchbooks it feels really soothing and reminds me where my starting point was. My entire childhood was about scribbling on paper, and I still love it.
What do you feel you have gained from participating in the Art Prize?
It was a great first connection to the world to me. I was given a chance to express myself through my painting, which is a meaningful opportunity for an artist. I’m not sure if I’d participate in other art competitions in the future but the range of art that Beautiful Bizarre Magazine presents really speaks to me and I’m glad they exist and give artists yearly opportunity to express themselves through the Art Prize.
Would you recommend it and encourage others to enter the Art Prize? If so, why?
I create art for myself but getting my art out in the world having some kind of connection or support gives me fresher and stronger energy to continue producing more. Being an artist you often battle with endless self-doubt and bottomless solitude. I’d like to encourage any artists struggling with such problem to come out and enter the Art Prize. Regardless of winning, it could be a new motivation and a new initiative.
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