PATIENCE paid off for Saipan International School’s Junseo Kim, this year’s winner of the Northern Marianas Congressional Art Competition.
Kim said his winning artwork, “Bird of the Sea,” was completed in 2022 — just after he found out that he was not the top artist for that year’s competition.
“Last year, Ms. [Amie] McRoberts told me about the competition,” Kim says. “I tried, but I failed. When I failed, I started the ‘Bird of the Sea’ and I finished it after a month. But I just kept it. I have an art Instagram account, but I kept [the ‘Bird of the Sea’] secret.”
According to a release from U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, the art competition is held every spring.
This year, a group of local artists selected Kim’s work as the top entry, and now “Bird of the Sea” will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol.
Kim recently featured “Bird of the Sea” at an art exhibit hosted to showcase his other work alongside the art of his schoolmate, Claire Park.
On Friday, the two SIS high school students were guests of honor of the 360 Restaurant where their work will be on display and for bid until May 19.
“Bird of the Sea,” which depicts a turtle, was painted on paper using watercolors and colored pencils.
Kim, a scuba diver, said turtles are his favorite creature and that the marine reptile “represents Saipan.”
He said he first began drawing and painting in Korea as an elementary school student. His talent grew throughout the years, and eventually his mother suggested he take art classes.
He moved to Saipan in 2021, and has plans to eventually go to college, taking his art skills to automotive design, fashion design, or any field that will let him express himself.
Kim said his favorite medium is watercolor and pen.
“We do a lot of guiding after school,” said McRoberts, Kim’s teacher at SIS.
McRoberts said in her teaching methodology, it was important for Kim and Park to think local.
“I wanted them to concentrate on who their audience is,” said McRoberts, who urged Kim and Park to create art that is relevant to the island environment around them.
As for Claire Park, she recalls finding a love for art in kindergarten. Her first canvas drawing at age 5 was a “heart within a heart within a heart.”
Although Park is clearly talented, she feels too “nervous” to call herself an artist.
She will be a senior next school year.
“I started off in art on my own and, as I’ve grown older, I’ve met amazing people who have been able to help me [create],” she said.
Junseo Kim
Claire Park
