Fine Lines: Chang-woo Seok
Written By Karly Pierre
Translated by Farah Amin, Lee Jeongmin and Karina Prananto
Photos courtesy of Chang-woo Seok
On October 29, 1984, Chang-woo Seok was rushed to a hospital. Moments before, a work accident sent 22,900 volts of electricity surging though his body. A year and a half and thirteen surgeries later, Seok finally returned home from the hospital with no arms.
Seok was given prosthetic limbs—stiff plastic and metal hooked 
replacements. While they helped him complete routine tasks, for the then 30-year-old electrical engineer, this meant the end of his career. His youngest son was three months old, and the future seemed uncertain.
“I was worried,” said Seok. “I couldn’t work to support my family anymore. I wanted to show that I could do something without both arms rather than my kids growing up hearing people say, ‘Your dad doesn’t have arms. He can’t do anything.’”
It was in this time of despair that Seok’s 4-year-old son approached him with a notebook and asked his father to draw a picture. Seok drew a bird.
“My wife and my sister-in-law saw the drawing and encouraged me to learn to draw, so I began taking art lessons,” said Seok.
As a child, Seok expressed interest in art but lacked access to the education he would need to explore it. Now a disabled adult, he was again being denied access, facing constant rejection by art schools.
“I understood why they turned me down. As a double amputee, it would be hard for me to deal with lots of paint colors, and they had no experience teaching people like me. This inspired me to focus more on calligraphy than painting.”
Traditional Korean calligraphy requires only a handful of tools: ink brushes, black ink, paper and an inkstone. The simplicity of the art form appealed to Seok, and eventually Yeo Tae Myung, a calligraphy professor at Wonkwang University, accepted him as a student.
Seok was undeterred by challenges he faced. He drilled a hole in the handles of his paintbrushes since they would often slip from the grip of his prosthetic arms, falling to the floor.
“My wife had to come with me to art classes, so we both couldn’t work. I would get blisters, and my toes were left bleeding at times because I had to use them to grind ink sticks. My back and whole body would ache, and I would get nosebleeds because I had to bend over to draw on the worktable. But after three months, I got used to it.”
In 1991, Seok won his first award in a calligraphic competition.
Eventually, Seok adopted a more dynamic form of calligraphy called calligraphic croquis, which captures movement and emotion in one brisk brush stroke.
“When I paint, I use my whole body, even to draw a single line. I used to practice ten hours, but recently, I draw when I want to,” said Seok. “In the case of performance painting, although I have to pour all of my energy and strength into it within 15 minutes, because I think of it as a regular task, I am able to think of it as fun.”
Seok admires Picasso both for his art and ingenious ability to market himself. He also reveres the work of Lee Jung-seob, particularly the bold strokes in his white ox series.
“I read Kim Sang-il’s thesis called ‘Han Philosophy and Fuzzy Logic. He is a professor at Hanshin University. This thesis helped me to integrate Korean philosophy into my art.”
Seok has had numerous solo exhibitions and performed high-intensity demonstrative art pieces across Korea and internationally in Europe, the U.S., Russia, Japan and China. In addition, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has acquired one of his sketchbooks; he has been a featured artist in both the Paralympic and Olympic games and made several appearances on television programs.
Seok’s drive and matching talent have earned him worldwide admiration, but he attributes most of his success to his family.
“This all began because my son asked me to draw a bird,” said Seok. “My family opened up the opportunity for me to draw. As long as I keep drawing with joy, I’ll be able to touch the hearts of others.”