Story behind the art of Kumie Kim
28th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art & Garden Center
Oriental bittersweet
Celastrus orbiculatus
This was not the first time I have portrayed oriental bittersweet. I painted my first one over 15 years ago when I was at the early stage of my career as a botanical artist. At the time, I was so fascinated by this art genre I had newly discovered that every night after work as an anesthesiologist I painted any random botanical subject I found. One day at the monthly artists’ meeting at The Morton Arboretum, a fellow artist was selling branches of oriental bittersweet at a nominal charge ($1 per branch!) that she had cut from her property in Wisconsin. I got a branch which had a graceful curve with many attractive, orange-colored berries and some golden yellow dome-like capsules covering the berries. I immediately fell in love with the branch and soon made a botanical portrait depicting its beauty. I liked the finished piece, and the image was even chosen to be used for a poster for the Annual Student Botanical Art Exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I was ignorant then about the severe invasive nature of oriental bittersweet.
Along my journey as a botanical artist, I have been advised to paint the same subject matter more than once for the purpose of evaluating my own progress in the artistic rendering of the specimen. So, I sometimes select specimens with that in mind.
After my recent retirement I began to walk and explore more in nature. Fortunately, there are many easily accessible trails in Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) near my home. When I was an anesthesiologist in an academic center, my life was so hectic from early morning to evening, that if I saw someone going into the woods, I used to wonder “what on earth are they doing in the woods?” But nowadays I am one of those who visit nature, where I find peace, happiness, and even a sense of healing amid the splendor it provides season after season.
I especially welcome spring after the long, harsh winter in Chicagoland. Tender spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) pushes out through the decaying brown leafy bed, followed by yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum), blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis), wood anemone (Anemonoides nemorosa) and Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). Even shoots of wild asparagus! Then, prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum) and patches of mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) appear.
During my visits to the woods last autumn, I found many oriental bittersweets growing along the trail in the woods. I could easily identify the plant by its climbing and choking branches with orange berries. And I knew by then that it was one of the most unwanted, invasive plants in Illinois along with buckthorn and honeysuckle. Despite the plant’s invasiveness, however, it was still beautiful and attractive to me. I decided to make another botanical painting of oriental bittersweet and contacted the FPCC officer by email to get a permit to collect some branches. But I never received a response. Meanwhile, a clearing project started coincidentally in one location near Beck Lake in Glenview, where heavy vegetation of oriental bittersweet existed. I was able to rescue some branches before the clearing crew eradicated them from that area.
When I was examining those rescued branches, I immediately knew those tightly twining three branches would be my subject matter this time. The smaller branches and twigs from those main branches made loops, then stretched out like a dancer’s arms. There were a few leaves attached with turning colors and the intense, orange-colored berries with golden capsules that attract birds.
In my composition, done in watercolor on 300 lb. hot press paper, I most wanted to express the sense of dynamic movement shown by the specimen. And I believe I somewhat succeeded in that. Although oriental bittersweet is an invasive species and not welcome from an ecological perspective, I cannot deny its aesthetic beauty.
Note: When I revisited Beck Lake, the clearing site, this spring, much of the vegetation was gone. But remaining oriental bittersweet plants grew not far away.
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Read more about this artist's work: 18th Annual