Soey Milk has seen a lot of creative and personal growth in the past year- she tackles life with the same focus as her precisely detailed, figurative paintings. When we last caught up with her, she was still a student at Pasadena Art Center and experimenting with a new style that incorporates colorful drapery. Recently graduated, her upcoming show at CHG Circa on December 13th showcases the result of her progress. Appropriately, the exhibition title “SINAVRO” loosely translates from Korean to “To progress slowly, almost imperceptibly.” Her identity as a young woman living between two cultures, Korean and American, is represented in her intermixing styles. Her female subjects exhibit both bold yet carefree characteristics, with an element of mystery. Just as life is full of contradictions, so are they. Milk embraces the strength and weaknesses of these ‘serene guardians’. One is left to wonder what lies underneath their monster masks and cloaks of vibrant, traditional fabric.
While in Western culture, bunnies are considered friendly, benign creatures, in Japan they represent lonesome spirits. 
When we try to recall old memories, they usually come back in bit and pieces: faces of loved ones, favorite objects, and sometimes our mind fills in the gaps with things that never were. In painting her own memories, 