- Overview
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As a 20-year collection of pen drawings of little corner stores and the author's stories about them, this book has been praised by national and overseas media.
- Book Intro
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Some 20 years ago, out of compassion and nostalgia for corner stores that are now fading away, Mekyeoung Lee started her journey looking for those places around the country. Encountering unknown old corner stores like they were her fate, the author has chronicled their stories through her pen drawings. She has been invited to showcase her artwork at numerous art galleries and art fairs, and the images have moved and comforted audiences with their affectionate viewpoints on life. Among the hundreds of portraits of corner stores the author has drawn over the past 20 years, 80 have been selected for this book, which also includes the author’s narratives about these stores.
Mekyeoung Lee began using pens for her art when she was pregnant, fearing that the smell of oil paints would have negative effects on her baby. She soon became fascinated by the charms of pen strokes, and she has continued to draw corner stores with this tool for 20 years. Readers will be awed by the delicate lines and subtle gradations formed by overlapping pen strokes. Bearing numerous stories from all these years, a gentle smile of a corner store becomes alive again through the author's vibrant pen strokes.
- About the Author
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Lee Mekyeoung
(English) Just like her grandmother, a talented craftswoman, Mekyeoung Lee enjoyed making and drawing things when she was young, and she ended up majoring in western painting at Hongik University. Upon having her second child and moving to a small town Toechon-myeon, she fell in love with a corner store that she discovered on her daily walk. In the 20 years since, the author has searched for little stores all over the country, documenting their stories in hundreds of her drawings. Her artwork has consoled and soothed people saddened by the disappearance of old things in the name of development. She still wanders through little alleys, drawing old corner stores with her pens.
(Chinese) 画了20多年的小店图画。穿梭在韩国全国各地的胡同，寻找开门的小店，在平板床上与店主面对面而坐，聊人生故事。回到画室后，一笔一笔用铅笔绘出最灿烂的瞬间，为店主的人生呐喊助威。获得英国BBC、Creative Bom、中国熊猫TV等媒体关于的作品介绍。第一本书《曾经一枚硬币也令人幸福的小店的那些日子》在法国、台湾、日本等国家和地区翻译出版。
(Japanese) 20年以上にわたり、小店の絵を描いてきた。全国各地の路地を歩き回りながら営業中の小店を訪れ、縁台で店主と向かい合って生きて来た物語を分かち合う。作業室に戻ると、小店とその主人の時間を応援しながら刺繍するように一つ一つ細いペンラインを重ね、一番輝いていた瞬間の姿を絵に収める。イギリスBBC、クリエイティブブーム、中国のパンダTVなどに作品を紹介し、最初の本『クモンカゲ: 韓国の小さなよろず屋（銅銭ひとつでも幸せになる小さな雑貨店の日々）』はフランス、台湾、日本などで翻訳出版された。
- Bestseller Rank
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Ranked 32 on YES24's bestseller list in March 2017
