In the world, there are some people who are involved in a variety of work and some who only know one and thus, know how to do only that.
Doo Won Lee is the latter.
This was also the reason why I invited his pieces to the first private exhibition at my gallery. When I first met Doo Won at a small party, he was passionately presenting every piece of his drawings, which were hung on the wall. I was charmed, not only by the originality of the drawings, but also by his innocent, child-like enthusiasm when presenting his drawings. Doo Won Lee calls himself an ‘old style painter’ because he literally only draws. His simplicity is one that doesn’t fit into any of the contemporary art trends such as installation art and performance art, which employ a combination of many genres.
Besides, while many artists explain the philosophy behind their works with ostentatious words, he just tells the ‘stories’ of his drawings. In fact, countless stories are already integrated in his drawings, mainly stories about coexisting with nature and the universe. The strength of his pieces is the freedom and purity of nature and the fact that the drawings illustrate without the need to use philosophical terms.
A Deep-Sea Diver’s Jewelry Hunt, 2012
Pick Up a Ring in Cloud, 2012
His imagination is filled with all the colors of the world, freely traveling back and forth between land, sky and ocean. And it seems as though he laughs at our concept of space since he often takes space trips within his drawings. All the creatures in his drawings harmonize ‘together’ and enjoy festivals. As you can grasp only after seeing a few of his pieces, his drawings do not lack color. Boundaries do not exist between the foundation which is filled only with vibrant colors and objects – as if everything exists just as ‘one’.
Doo Won Lee is not a ‘prolific’ artist, but a rare artist. His drawings are usually about size 10 (53.0cm x 45.5cm) therefore one of the reasons why he creates so many pieces might be because of the small size of his works. Doo Won Lee, always full of inspiration, says such images endlessly surge from his mind. At times he is fully occupied drawing the countless messages received from the universe. (He actually drew nearly a hundred pieces within a few months prior to opening at the exhibition.) Painters who live for painting admit how difficult it is to create such images from scratch. And, when they find out Doo Won Lee just draws images he ‘sees’ from his mind, not ‘creating’ them, they are all surprised. His mind that endlessly pours out such pictures is literally an enormous ‘fantasy world’.
In his pieces, there are always many animals and plants, like turtles, fish, dogs, cats, flowers, and trees. However, within these pictures of nature, he always includes a person. Sometimes the human appears as an observer and sometimes as an individual coexisting within the picture with nature.
Peeping at a Lotus Peacock on Cloud, 2010 
Colorful Lake Fishing, 2012
Doo Won Lee draws out our dreams and desires that are breathing somewhere within our minds. But he includes messages like ‘return to nature’ or ‘become one with the origin’. Using witty analogies, he portrays that living in this way is a real life. He draws more stories from his ‘fantasy world’, and hopes that the audience can see the world beyond world. In order for everyone to see the world with a wide open mind, from somewhere in the Himalayas, old style painter Doo Won Lee continues to draw.
