Eun Cho is an accomplished art professor at Sacramento City College. She currently teaches wheel-thrown ceramics and drawing & composition. She was a featured artist in the City College faculty art exhibit “Half Of Us: Part One” at the Kondos Gallery.
With an art style focused on nature, Cho seeks the spontaneous, natural occurrences in her work. She uses unusual tools, like worn-down paint brushes and clay wirers, to capture certain themes that explore different textures with unpolished elements.
Cho grew up in Korea, and in 2002, started working at City College, having an impact on her students’ appreciation, knowledge and skills in the art field ever since.
The Express recently spoke with Cho to learn about her art process and her experience teaching at City College so far.
Could you share a little bit about your background and what led you to pursue a career in art?
I am originally from Korea, and I decided to major in art. I was always interested in art ever since my elementary school year. And my older sister, she was two and a half years, almost three years older than me, she was always really good at art. She inspired me. I would say, and because of her, people always had a higher expectation of me. In the end I was the one that majored in art, and she gave me a lot of support.
What college did you attend and how did that impact your journey?
I went to Hongik University which is a prestigious art school in Korea. After I graduated from Hongik University, I wanted to do some more study in art history so I did another couple years at a different school. Then I moved to the United States and later decided to pursue an art master’s degree. I went to California State [University] in Sacramento.
The art program was fine and very, very, suited for me, because I had a family already, and my kids were little … we all started school together at the same time.
How do you balance teaching technical skills with creative freedom?
Creativity is very, very important, but I always suggest in my drawing class as well as my ceramics class that the technical aspect would help your creativity. So in the beginning, when you learn, I think it is important for you to [know] that technical aspect, especially how the clay works and how the pencil and charcoal works. Today, I just had to explain about understanding the values and understanding how you can make the drawing look more three dimensional. But after that, I want students to push themselves to be more creative; it’s not about rendering something exactly the same way as how the real object looks.
What do you believe is the most important thing for students to understand about art, especially in a college setting?
Develop their own creativity, I would say. Teachers teach one thing, and you’re copying exactly that, [and] that is just to learn the technical aspect of it, but you always have to push yourself farther to the next level.So that is very important.
Can you describe a particular milestone in your artistic journey that stands out as especially impactful?
When I was in grad school, I was working on my sculpture, and I really liked how it was going. I was excited … I just kept going, and I finished it. But then [the product] wasn’t as exciting as how I felt. I realized [why] when one of the instructors came by the graduates’ studio, we all had our own grad studio. And [the professor] got to see my previous work and current work … in the process of it. At the time, I really wanted to give it the natural essence of clay. Then I asked the professor how come, when I finished it, I didn’t like it as much. He mentioned my overwork … and then it clicked. After that, I always timed myself to avoid overwork. That was a good experience for me.
Where do you see your art evolving in the future?
Oh, that is always a good question, because sometimes I don’t know. My style has evolved to the series that I’m showing at the Kondos Gallery]. It always comes as I’m working. When I was working on these pieces, even a month before, I didn’t know that I was going to create this type of stuff…so it is unpredictable sometimes. [What] I never want to do is repeat the same thing over and over … it will just get boring eventually.
Your work was displayed at the Kondos Gallery. What was that experience like, and how did you feel when you had the opportunity to showcase it?
I’m so excited, and I was working in a different format because one of my pieces was selected to the Juried Art Exhibition at Pence Gallery in Davis last summer. I was working with this coil building, and I didn’t know that there would be this opportunity of showing the faculty show. I started summer last year, and those were done out of the kiln in December. So it was almost like a half of the year that I’ve been working on [them].
You’ve mentioned that your work evokes a sense of nature. Could you elaborate more on how nature influences your artistic process?
Yeah, just like I mentioned again, my work is not so much about polishing … It’s about something that sometimes spontaneously happens. A lot of people mention [the piece in the Kondos Gallery] looks like snake skin. I created the piece with layers of undercolor that I applied first, and a dark base. Then, put a white, thick glaze on top of it. I used a stubby pencil and drew on top of it. It’s not about drawing, it’s about scratching it starting from the thin, thin lines, then gradually the stubby pencil becomes shorter and shorter. So those irregular things that naturally happen, is what I’m looking for. I love the contrast between roughness and then [the] smooth surface — that’s what I meant by nature.
This Q&A has been edited for length, clarity, and flow.
Express Exchange is a Q&A series that highlights the people in the Sacramento City College community. Each conversation explores unique experiences, challenges these people overcame and perspective into what matters most in their personal journey. This series provides a space to connect and share meaningful experiences. Have an idea of someone for us to interview? Contact our editors at llentz.express@gmail.com and njeffery.express@gmail.com
