The Korean National Tuberculosis Association interviewed the illustrator who created this year’s Christmas seals, Ahn Sol (안솔). The seals show the Haenyeo (해녀) of Jeju island, the women who dive for seafood around the coast of the island. Ahn Sol created the artwork for the seals while staying for a couple of months on the island.
The complete interview can be found on the KNTA website, but here are quick translations of some sample questions and answers from the interview:
Q) When did you start painting?
I originally studied broadcasting related fields because I wanted to be a PD or a broadcaster. But when I graduated, I wasn’t as passionate about it as I thought. Since I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I decided to experience other things and tried various things. One of them was painting and I thought of it as a hobby, but when I started, I became steadfast in my work. Now that I am a professional, I am surprised myself that I am drawing because I had never thought of it just a few years ago.
Q) How did you like the Christmas seal design request from the artist?
When the first work came in, it was amazing. When I was young, I remembered buying Christmas seals at school, and I was honored and excited to draw the painting myself. And looking at the Christmas seal, a lot of young children came to mind. So as I was working on it, I wished it was a picture that kids would like.
The complete interview is also shown in this video:
For more of Ahn Sol’s work have a look at her Instagram pages. The 2019 Christmas seals (plus the seals from the last decade) can be bought from the KNTA Christmas seal website.
Copyright graphics: KNTA
Hi Ivo, still do not know how to order these as someone from outside Korea. It doesn’t appear you can do it on the website and they do not answer e-mails on how to order from them.