What are the chances of having four daughters and all of them becoming artists? Well, meet the Oh sisters.
By Jimmy Lee
Saelee Oh has all the trappings of a super-cool older sibling: solo art shows in Los Angeles and New York, with pieces selling for thousands of dollars; studios in both Northern and Southern California; hip and creative friends; and an arm tatted up with animal images.
But to her younger sisters Saewon, Saejean and Sarah, Saelee can be, well, parental, like when she catches Sarah drawing in front of the television. Says Saelee, “I’m like, ‘Sarah, are you working or are you watching TV? It’s kind of hard to do both at the same time.’ ”
What might seem like nagging (“She can be really bossy,” says Saejean with a smile), however, is Saelee, 28, sharing some hard-won knowledge from her art world experiences with her little sisters, who have artistic aspirations, too.
Sarah, 18 and a high school senior, is waiting to find out if she got into the Rhode Island School of Design. Saejean, 22, is about to graduate from the Art Center College of Design, Saelee’s alma mater. And Saewon, 25, has a day job as a teacher in San Francisco, but with her love for photography, she often has a camera at her side.
“Things I try to help them with are just practical things, like telling Saejean she should get her business license—just things I wish people told me earlier,” says Saelee.
She also recently gave her sisters an unexpected gift: an audiobook on procrastination. “I wanted to share [it] with my sisters, especially when I found out that someone didn’t do her homework on time,” she says. “Everyone has room for growth and self-improvement.”
Helping the Oh women grow and improve as artists has become a family tradition. As a child, Saelee showed a penchant for art, and so her mom found a tutor. Eventually all the girls were taking art classes.
“Our art teacher taught us to have fun, and to think of everything we do as creating art,” recalls Saewon.
Sarah associates art with many of her happiest moments at home. “Like gathering around the fireplace to draw with burned skewers and sharing a sketchbook centerfold of doodles,” she describes.
“I always felt like art was part of my life,” says Saejean. “I never had to fight to do art.”
It wasn’t quite that way for the eldest. But her sisters credit Saelee for breaking down their immigrant parents, who run a laundromat. Now Mom and Dad have jumped on the bandwagon. Their father, Ray, formerly a carpenter, helps with woodwork, preparing components for his daughters’ pieces. Sunny, their mother, will stay up late to help finish a project, whether it’s cutting out magazine pictures for Sarah’s collage or helping Saejean sew together a 6-foot-long ear of corn made of fabric.
Mom has also turned the house into an Oh family gallery.
“It’s great having art kids,” says Sunny, though she admitted it took time to accept her daughters’ common choice to pursue art. “I realize, ‘Oh, I have to let them go. I cannot pull them.”
And with those wings and big sis cheering from the sidelines, the three youngest Ohs will be part of a group show called “Mercy, Not Sacrifice,” a one-night art and music benefit that will feature work from 13 Korean American female artists, on May 1 at Echo Curio in Los Angeles. Because of another art fundraiser that night, Saelee couldn’t participate in the show, but she’s quite proud of her siblings.
Beyond the artistic encouragement, Saewon credits their parents for nurturing a love between sisters that has served all of them well.
“They always taught us to help one another, share and work as a tight network,” says Saewon, who incidentally hasn’t yet listened to that procrastination audiobook gifted by Saelee. “Ha ha,” she responds when asked. “Never got around to it.”
Check out the “Mercy, Not Sacrifice” show on May 1, . Proceeds from the art sold that night benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation and Love LA.
Inspirations and aspirations …
SAELEE OH, 28
“[I am inspired by] things I like: my family, tide pools, oceans, whale watching, music with female singers,
gardens, banyan trees, reading, OCD organizing, traveling, baby elephants, folk art, silhouettes, snails, BBC nature documentaries, boxing, learning to surf, the color robin’s egg blue, healthy food, hand-drawn type, terrariums,
libraries, conversations, daydreaming, solitary time, love, honesty, spontaneity.”
SAEWON OH, 25
“I’m not a professional artist, but I always need a creative outlet. [As a teacher] I’m privy to some very rich imaginative worlds. I weave in as many art and cooking projects as I can. An important goal of mine is to encourage children to explore creative possibilities and express themselves freely.”
SAEJEAN OH, 22
“Right now I’m working with really specific and funny stories from the family. Growing up, we’d always have these trips down memory lane; they were ruckuses. The Oh sisters are loud, and I think we’re pretty funny as a group. When I decided to make art from it, it came from wanting to study self-portrait. I think by borrowing these memories from a collective entity and by narrating them, I’m trying to carve out my own identity.”
SARAH OH, 18
“I’m young, and I appreciate all of the creative energy and inspiration I have as a teenager. That’s why I try to stick with what I know when I’m making art. I’m a big science geek and have always loved everything Mother Nature. In the long run, I just want to be able to say what I need to say.”
