The title of this piece comes from an academic essay of the same name by Seongsook Moon. The origin myth of Korea begins with a bear who yearned to become human. She and her tiger companion asked the Heaven God to turn them into human beings. He gave them a challenge: to eat nothing but mugwort and garlic cloves for one hundred days in a cave, and with their piety proven, he would grant them humanity. The bear persevered while her tiger companion chose to flee. The bear was turned into a beautiful maiden who wed the son of the Heaven God, and gave birth to the first king of Korea. 

I wanted to center the sacrifice of the bear woman while also legitimizing a different way to be a woman, a tiger who chooses to live in the way that she exists, choosing freedom over suffering. In addition, I sought to render the bear in a traditional East Asian style, sticking to a simplified East Asian color palette, and characterized proportions. Where the tiger was constantly present in East Asian paintings, her counterpart, the bear is rarely seen. 

The background is blended reference to deeply masculine and feminine imagery. The deep blue sky with double celestial bodies of sun and moon (and five mountain peaks) is a direct reference to Irwolobongdo ( 일월오봉도 / 日月五峯圖), the folding screen painting that was often set behind the king’s throne during the Joseon Dynasty. Thought to represent the power of the king over his land and nation, this image has profoundly masculine connotations. Simultaneously, the presence of a feminine face of primordial proportions with the placement of the sun and moon on her cheeks is a direct reference to traditional bridal makeup, where a Korean bride would often have two red circles drawn or placed upon the apples of her cheeks. In addition, the bear is bracketed by a mountain and the sleeve of a traditional Korean bride’s ceremonial gown. Each cluster of miniature men at the feet of the bear represent each Korean dynasty’s perspective on women’s roles in society- from wonder, to fear, awe, and indifference.