Kim Hyun Joong: Vision of an Angel

It is indubitably strange how my thoughts seem to be echoed about the web even when I think of them days before. I had started this post with just a sentence stating that I wanted to explore Kim Hyun Joong as a creative artist. Other posts took precedence, and this one sat waiting for my attention. As I was responding to comments and monitoring my blog, another blogger ‘liked’ my post from yesterday entitled Kim Hyun Joong: Angel Soul. I followed his gravatar and landed on his page to read a reflection on what it feels like to be born an artist. I resonated with his statements so thoroughly.

“Being an artist is a way of finding out who you really are. Because as much as art is about observing the world around you, about turning yourself into a shadow, art is also about introspection, about confronting the most terrifying of truths.” –cristianmihai.net

The soulful eyes of a true artist.

I believe that artists are born with a soul that is still attached to Heaven. It is like a window into the Divine. We are driven to express ourselves using creative media because the world simply has no comparison to what we sense deep within our spiritual selves. Even the media available can not fully express what we are feeling and seeing as we glimpse an alternate universe, another plane, a reality that is as vivid and palpable to our senses as this physical world we call ‘real.’ We become lost in this other world where we can be our ‘true selves.’ A world whose sway can almost keep us imprisoned as we don’t want to leave the feeling of bliss through artistic expression. Thus, people call us strange, weird, eccentric, 4D, Alien. Hyun Joong’s personality just proves he is a true artist. He will always be in his own world because he was born to give us that glimpse into the beauty of another world. His world. Kim Hyun Joong’s U:Zoosin World.

U:Zoosin as created by KHJ! God of Universe! City Conquest pssshhh! He plans to CONQUER all of CREATION! bwaaa haaa haaa haaa!

It could be viewed as an addiction. I’ve heard comments that Hyun Joong is addicted to performing and the stage. But, it is more spiritual than that. An addiction is something we do to ESCAPE reality. An artist must create and perform to EXPRESS his reality. A reality that is so blended with the supernatural it makes him feel unique and alone. The phrase every man is an island is truly philosophical and we have all heard it said. But, for the creative artist, he is more like his own universe. Nothing can touch that Vision that drives him to create. Nothing can intrude or impose itself on that pure form of expression that is unique for him as an individual. It is his tether to the eternal. A connection to God/Goddess/Jewel/Ocean/Air/Fire/Stone/Nature/Animal whatever expression seems the most accurate in his vision.

Hyun Joong in his own world as the Little Prince.

Hyun Joong knew he wanted to be a performer at a very young age. Although he had chosen the pencil and brush on his Doljanchi, and was destined to be a scholar, by the time he was in junior high, he had already told his parents he wanted to be a musician.

Hyun Joong the Scholar. I did not know that HJ wears contact lenses. I read it on a stats site today! Maybe these are real prescription glasses? Very sexy in my opinion!

“Hyun Joong was excellent in his studies, it had never come to my mind that he will become an artist. However now that I started to think, he seems to be different from other kids since childhood.” –quoted from an interview with his mother, Jung Yeon Mi . Source : http://ss501ufo.blogspot.com/2009/08/hyun-joongs-childhood-story-hyun-joong.html

I read one blog that stated he saved all his money from working odd jobs delivering pizza and chicken to buy his first guitar. When he dropped out of highschool and told his parents he was going to play in a band, his father destroyed that guitar in a fit of anger. I don’t know if this is the truth as there were no other sources to back up the claims. Source: http://intlboffanforums.roflforum.net/t135-hyun-joong-s-life-story

The official interview with his mother stated that his father bought him the guitar believing it would relieve stress from studies. At any rate, his parents were opposed to him becoming an artist, and I can only imagine how this must have felt to Hyun Joong. In this act, he was being told that it was not acceptable for him to be himself. The world would not honor him for his dream. He should conform to the wishes of his parents and follow the prescribed route to success.

Hyun Joong, rock guitarist! Wow… I like this sexy rocker look with the messy hair!
source: http://triplesphilippines.blogspot.com/2009/09/multi-talented-kim-hyun-joong.html

How thankful I am that Hyun Joongieee is so STUBBORN! We would not know him if he had not pursued his Vision even after such crushing blows as practicing hard to perform for a group in Junior High only to have his parents refuse their permission, having his father cut him off financially which forced him to become a stowaway on the train and steal from a street vendor because he was starving, or working hard for months to find out he had thrown in with a scam company who would have enslaved him as a performer in China with little to no pay or reward. Finally, third time was the charm and he became the leader of SS501. Thank you so much sweet Hyun Joong. We are in your debt!

No one can tell the artist that what he has created is right or wrong, good or bad, valuable or disposable. It is his creation. You can love it or leave it, but it exists and is a part of his soul. There were many doubters about ‘Heat.’ Out of Hyun Joong’s element. Japanese fans would only like it because of the association with B’z. Well, 200,000 singles later over 100,000 of which were pre-ordered by Kim Hyun Joong fans around the world, I don’t see anyone saying anything like that any more. By the way, Hyun Joong snuck off to Japan again on August 20th to perform Heat on the Varitey show Hey! Hey! Hey! I wonder where the Airport photos are? [update: 8/21/12 I stand corrected. Apparently the show was recorded 8/5/12 and aired 8/20/12] See his performance below:

That is why artists are so tender, vulnerable and emotional. We are putting ourselves out there for everyone to judge. Some understand that judgment is arbitrary and that there is no place for it when dealing with art. Others think their opinion matters and people should listen. Well, I just want to enjoy the Vision. Hyun Joong’s art. Whether it is City Conquest:

The latest still from City Conquest portrays the cast having a good time in a drinking scene. I wonder if Hyun Joong got to finally have some soju after working so hard to build his body for the role and giving up his favorite ‘sport’ lol!

music, dancing, writing, drawing, or expressing himself in words (rare, but beautiful when it happens…) (See an account of his endless talent here: http://triplesphilippines.blogspot.com/2009/09/multi-talented-kim-hyun-joong.html

I want to support him as one artist to another who understands what it is to be an artist and have no other choice but to express yourself. It is like breathing, water, food. You cannot live without expressing it every day. Thanks to Hyun Joong, we get to see that Angelic expression. Beauty we could only experience through the Angel of the East: Kim Hyun Joong.