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Profile - Immigrant Artist Golumba Kim

Guest Author - Betty Dobson

Golumba Kim in her studio

Sometimes, you have to leave the home you know to find the home you love.

That's what happened to Golumba Kim in 1997. She felt dissatisfied with life in her native Korea and decided to make a fresh start in Canada.

"My generation," Ms. Kim says, "everybody got married, had a family." Unlike her contemporaries in Korea, she chose to remain single and pursue a career as an artist. That choice made life--and making a living--difficult. "People thought that I was strange.".

Korean culture, she explains, can't define an unmarried woman. A woman is known not for what she does but for her relationship to her husband. If her husband is a doctor, she is referred to as "wife of doctor" rather than by her name. "Who's the woman? Who's the wife?" Kim chants, expressing succinctly the prevailing attitude in her birth country.

Artistically, she had to contend with the notion that academic background held more value than talent and with the highly competitive art school business. Her creativity suffered and her stress level grew.

In a bid for personal and creative freedom, Kim came to Canada in June 1997. Within a month, she met another artist, Lola Hollingum, at the Painter's Palette Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. An enduring friendship began.

Kim also developed a deep appreciation of life in Nova Scotia. After spending most of her life in an urban setting, she relishes the relatively easy access to a more natural environment. "Here you have lots of great landscapes," she says, "but the weather! And the mosquitoes!" Korea has less scenery but, apparently, a gentler climate.

Despite the unpredictable weather, Kim has taken root. "I'm here," she says, pointing to the ground with both hands. "This is my home." She takes full advantage of her freedom by travelling, but adds, "My favourite place is here."

The ocean serves as one of the most prevalent themes in her current work, an influence born out of life in Nova Scotia and nurtured by Hollingum's teaching. Kim credits the older woman--who has become a mother figure over the years--with introducing her to artist community and accelerating her development as a seascape painter. "She taught me to watch the water, the shifting light and colour," Kim says, adding, "I love the water. Maybe in a previous life I was a fish."

Golumba Kim receives the Mayor’s Award from Municipal councillor Mary Wile

Levity aside, Kim is a talented artist whose watercolour paintings have garnered considerable recognition since 1997. She had her first solo exhibition in 1998, but made her first favourable impression on the Nova Scotia art community when she donated one of her hydrangea paintings to the Isaac Walton Kilham Hospital's Kermesse exhibition the following year. The painting caught the eye of Ron Hazell, director of the Canadian Society of Watercolour Painters. Most recently, she received an award from the Canadian Korean Central Daily (Toronto) in April and was presented with the Mayor's Award by the Contemporary Artists Society (Halifax) in May. Through it all, she operates Golumba Art Studio & Gallery out of the house she shares with Hollingum.

She admits her English is not as strong as she would like, but she feels she has to put her career first and establish herself in the artistic community. "I can't do both," she says without a hint of regret.

Only one thing seems to excite her more than painting. Working in her back yard gardens allows her to commune with her beloved nature and take the time to appreciate the life she has come to live.

"Finally," Kim says, "I'm so comfortable and I feel so secure. I know what love is."