Welcome

February 1, 2017 Soma Han

Please note that some of the works presented here have been sold and in the STORE are marked "in private collection." High-resolution Giclée prints of the image are available with the owner's permission.

Books in Print

Because two of my three illustrated children's books are still in print (see BOOKS) we are actively promoting them. In the summer of 2016 my husband John and I were invited to participate with the international Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in their booth at the Bay Area Book Festival. It was held in downtown Berkeley, CA and we had a marvelous time talking to passersby about reading to and with children and about Korean culture. Here we are one Sunday in June:

Mary Harding Jewelry

A shout-out here to my sister-in-law Mary, one of the premiere hand-crafted beadmakers in the U.S. She proposed to me and ran a children's book giveaway launched from her blog at maryhardingjewelry.com and open to her readers who previewed this site. Check out her unique jewelry and her blog. And congratulations to the winner, Carol Shull of Vacaville, CA, who won an autographed copy of Maya and the Turtle: A Korean Fairy Tale.

Skipping Stones Magazine
Another shoutout to ArunToke', editor and publisher of the prize-winning children's magazine, Skipping Stones, now in its 29th year. As noted on the BOOKS page here, his editorial team previously picked my second book, Land of Morning Calm: Korean Culture Then and Now, for an Honor Award in the International and Multicultural category. His 2017, Vol. 29, no. 1 and Vol. 29, no. 2, contain many wonderful articles on Korean and Asian cultures. Thank you Arun! Please visit his website and consider subscribing for your child: SkippingStones.org

My plan is to update this blog the first of every month to keep the site fresh. Upcoming topics will include my mother, who brought up her children with traditional Korean proverbs instead of spankings; my father, who was the village elder and a reclusive scholar; and my creative mentor, Lee Il Young, by far the greatest artist and sculptor in South Korea during the 20th century.

I'll close here with a word about Giclée prints:

Giclée printing

A giclée (zhee-KLAY) is an individually produced, high-resolution reproduction printed on archival paper or canvas. The technique was introduced to the world of printing in 1991.

To make a severe distinction between low-end and high-end inkjet printers he borrowed the French word “gicler” which means to squirt, spurt or spray. In the beginning of the nineties the best results were achieved with high-end, very expensive Iris inkjet printers. The fine prints of these dye-based printers were accepted for the first time in the history of inkjet printing by some museums and collections.

Today’s printing technology has far surpassed the original Iris printer in terms of both quality and archival characteristics. Giclée prints are sharper, brighter, last longer and have a color gamut far beyond traditional lithography. These fine images are all printed on high-quality archival material: acid-free, 100 percent cotton, 310 gsm, velvet-textured, cold mould, watercolor paper.