Any of you that read the notes at the bottom of one of my recent blogs knows that the world lost a very inspiring artist a few weeks ago, Kim Jung Gi. Apparently, it’s affected me more than I had any reason to expect it to. You see, in an interview I recently saw, he said something that struck me profoundly. He said that drawing was “breathing” for him.
When you watch him, you can see that it’s true. He was drawing during the interview, he drew during meetings with large corporations, he would draw in the car (as a passenger), he would draw his family, he drew EVERYWHERE… He would wonder at people who would tell him he needs to take a break during one of his three hour drawing demonstrations. Yes, he would stand and draw for three hours straight while a mesmerized audience watched, usually while also cracking jokes. He would say that he has been drawing like that (pretty much constantly) since he was a small child, why would he need a break? Drawing is breathing. I realized that they were essentially asking him to take a break from breathing.
That of course made me think of Kung Fu, as such things do more and more these days. We are frequently told at Silent River Kung Fu (SRKF) the importance of breathing, for the sake of power, oxygenation to muscles, self-control, etc. As students we are also repeatedly reminded to take our Kung Fu out into the world, make it part of our daily life, and not just a class we go to a few nights a week. The Kung Fu we are taught at SRKF is not just about kicking and punching though. It’s about self-discipline, perseverance, kindness, empathy, leadership… and mastery. These are all very good things to take out into the rest of our lives and the world!
Thus, I realized. Kung Fu IS Breathing. Therefore, I am breathing.
Notes:
Here is a video of Kim Jung Gi doing a drawing demonstration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdP9uZhOSs
The drawing with this blog post is another ball point pen sketch. I decided to draw anything. Whatever was in front of me. To play with making drawing breathing for me. As a result I ended up drawing gardening stuff.
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