I visited a sunflower farm in Thailand as a tourist. When I got close to a single flower, something stopped me. It was enormous — taller than a person, wild and unrefined. Like expecting a cat and meeting a tiger.

That presence became the starting point for this series of sunflower paintings. I love classical music, and one form has always delighted me: theme and variations, where the same melody returns again and again — transformed each time in rhythm, mood, and character, yet always recognizably itself. I wanted to try that with paint. One sunflower painting as the theme, six variations that each find a different way to express the same encounter.

I have kept tropical fish for a long time — pressing my face against the tank glass, watching them drift and float. The shimmer of their scales, the slow sway of their fins — there is something about them that feels, to a painter's eye, like watching a work of art in motion.

That fascination became the starting point for this series of ornamental fish paintings. As with classical theme and variations — where a melody is transformed again and again while keeping its essential character — I made one painting as the theme and six variations, each finding a different expression of the same subject.

A gentle breeze, the warmth of the sun, the quiet presence of small flowers and birds—this scene evokes the tranquility of a Sunday afternoon. As I painted, a song I once heard long ago resurfaced in my mind, carrying with it a sense of nostalgia and quiet joy. Though its melody has faded, its feeling remains, woven into the colors and light of this piece.

Under the bright daylight, there are small vacant lots where grass grows freely, flowers appear without notice, and birds occasionally stop by. They are ordinary places, easily overlooked, scattered among roads, houses, and traces of daily life.

Rather than depicting a grand landscape or an untouched paradise, this painting reflects a small and ordinary moment beneath the sun. Somewhere inside it, however, something unexpected may still be hiding.

Inspired by The Birth of Venus, this work reimagines Venus through a contemporary and deeply personal visual language. The figure emerges not from a quiet sea, but from a world of flowing color, movement, and emotional energy, flapping the wings.

Venus Reborn is both an homage to classical beauty and a celebration of artistic transformation.