The story of the ugly duckling has always made me cry since I was little. Curiously, although the little swan was supposed to be ugly in contrast to the yellow ducklings, I could never understand where the ugliness was. No matter how much I looked at it, in illustrations or cartoons, it always seemed beautiful to me. Why did they bother it? Not only was it beautiful, but also tender and kind. It simply wasn't a duck. That was all. I then thought about how absurd it was to punish the swan because it didn't look like a duck. Could it be that sometimes we close ourselves to the beauty of what is because it is not exactly as we expected? How lovely would it be to embrace the truth with loving gaze.

Watercolor and liquid bronze on 300-gram 100% cotton paper. (2024)

Size: 56x76cm