From Time: Dawn captures the energy of awakening and the possibilities held within a new beginning. As the first light gradually pushes through the deepest night, it represents a quiet but persistent sense of hope. Rather than treating optimism as an escape from darkness, the work considers hope as something that emerges through it—an expression of maeum, the Korean concept of heart-mind.

The work was inspired by the empathy of King Sejong and the hopeful vision with which he regarded the lives of his people. Dawn therefore becomes more than a depiction of a particular time of day; it represents the moment when resilience begins to rise from within.

During the painting process, I developed a fragmented approach to depicting light. Orange appears in broken forms across the surface, gradually entering the darker areas of the painting. Through this process, light does not erase the night but slowly transforms it, suggesting renewal as a transition rather than a sudden beginning.