Cheonggyecheon (12" x 24" x 1.5")

When traveling to new cities, I like to devote some time to walking around with no plan, no destination, and no expectations. It's great accidentally discovering cool neighborhoods or parks doing this. I find it more exciting than visiting sites I've seen online a thousand times, knowing entirely what to expect by when I visit.

One night in Seoul this past summer, we came across this amazing stream/riverwalk that I knew would make for a great painting. While working on this piece, I learned that the natural stream had been filled with concrete and covered by a highway in the 1950s. I love that Seoul chose to restore it into a beautiful linear park. Cities should be places that people enjoy, not places that people pass through.

What also stood out was how lively and family-friendly the park was at night—a quality I noticed throughout Seoul, and one I don’t often see in the U.S.