The Gift

par Fred Lynch, près de Boston, Massachusetts  

Last year, I gave a friend – an ex-student of mine, Karen Jiyun Sung, one of my “freebies” from an Urban Sketcher Conference. I loved the book, but because I usually work with materials which would disagree with the paper, I gave it to Karen for better use. She’s an eager, non-stop sketcher and I knew she’d fill it up long before I would.

This year, the book was sent back to me. I was “re-gifted.” Only now, the book was different. The proverbial seed that I had planted, had bloomed beautifully.

To my amazement, I opened up the book to find a beautifully drawn visual essay on cafe life in Seoul, Korea, where Karen is living. 

Here, I share with you, every single page in order. 

Now, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results, but maybe you all should consider what are the possibilities with those extra sketchbooks lying around your house.

As for this book, I tried to return it. I’m simply not comfortable with generous gifts. But, no luck. Karen insisted that it was for me. She would not take the gift back.

So, I’ll forever cherish it and use it as a teaching tool. And I will share it with everyone.

More of Karen Sung’s work can be found at her website: http://karenjysung.com. This fall she’ll begin working towards her master’s degree in visual communication at the Royal College of Art in London. There, she’ll continue to focus on urban sketching/journalistic drawing.