Dona Park
“No doubt, Dona Park’s illustrations communicate a powerful message, but can digital imagery pass as fine art? Art is not only about tactile, beautiful objects, it is about concept too. Are screen savers fine art?”
— Sandra Botnen, curator
Day 18 brings artist Dona Park to the Thirty Day Gallery, introducing digital illustration to the mix of art forms represented. Whether this is the artwork of the future is still questionable to me. No doubt, Dona Park’s illustrations communicate a powerful message, but can digital imagery pass as fine art? Art is not only about tactile, beautiful objects, it is about concept too. Are screen savers fine art? Do we hang screens on the wall? Then there is the monetization and replication of the artwork which brings to bear a whole new set of questions.
Dona Park started working in commercial digital illustration, content creating and package design for a beauty start- up. When she left the company, she continued to use the many tools she adapted for her job to create her own images with her own personal messaging. Korean born, Dona studied art and history at Goshen College in Indiana where she became known as a social activist. Spearheading anti-racial campaigns and promoting intersectional dialogue, Park’s message is about diversity and unity. Today she continues in social activism working on a peacemaking project in Cambodia. Travelling back and forth has only furthered her interest in digital illustration since all she needs is an IPad and apple pencil. After working with all the messy materials of a painter she has come to like the physical and environmental cleanliness of digital works and the fact that it also eliminates consumption.
“It’s a bit of a rabbit hole,” she says. I can only assume this refers to online chat rooms where dedicated followings are built. “I really feel I can connect with audiences in this medium,” she adds. Younger people read and understand her images. There is not a lot of ambiguity, so like-minded audiences can enjoy eye-catching imagery while they merge as one sphere of influence. As for the monetization of her work, one of the most common methods is Patreon. People pay for memberships which allow them to follow an artist. In doing so, they support a voice they want heard and to see grow in the world. Patreon, like the digital art making itself, makes a space for art consumers to do away with material consumption. Although, Park’s paid work is mainly derived from made to order prints and commissions from a variety of social media platforms. For example the gardening image was commissioned by a humanitarian aid organization and depicts one of their projects in Africa.
As for her images, Dona Park finds subject matter in women in swimsuits, kissing, young women in traditional Asian clothing and more. Her images merge old and new, traditional and non-traditional while speaking of community endeavors and positive shared spaces. An air of peaceful contemplation moves through the flat spaces of her compositions, and when not socially engaged, her figures are often surrounded by a vast negative space that appears give the sense of a soul enriching solitude.
Are these utopic ideals capable of reinventing the capitalist world many of us have come to accept today? The future is theirs, all I want to know is how are these young idealists are going to survive and thrive? I think it is an interesting question, one we have all been asking. The very ethos of today’s millennial is in fact the subject matter of and upcoming artist Sherri Wolfgang, whose portraits will be featured tomorrow. When it comes to art, if beauty and reinvention are the goal, Dona Park’s work is undoubtably beautiful and brand new. She is thoughtful, educated and morally driven, and out there challenging the very nature of conventional goals and objectives. I have to applaud her and her whole generation for pursuing a better and more unified world.