I like to consider myself a person who prizes material utility. I like when I can use one tool for multiple tasks or when one of my actions can accomplish two things in one fell swoop. But usually I only apply these preferences to gadgets, menial chores and the like. I value complexity and detailed ornamentation in art: I see Renoir's "Dance at the Bougival" and I take in every color, every blot of paint, every line, every fold in cloth, and this is what I prize above all in a visual art piece. If it is complex and painstakingly rendered, to me it is beautiful. And so when I walked into the Shapiro Campus Center Art Gallery, I wasn't immediately struck by aesthetic awe. I did, however, note that there was a definite beauty in the blocky and large designs of the prints hanging off the walls. And a homey friendliness, like that of your father's best friend, radiated from the resident artist Prof. Hoseob Yoon from Kookmin University of South Korea. After a brief introduction, he proceeded to business.He offered me many items of the environmentally conscious and activist genre, such as a T-shirt made with completely organic materials that was graphically printed with a spinach-based tree-resin ink mix. I also received posters detailing his life and work printed on soy ink and the most inexpensive and organic papers available. As he gave me these eye-opening gifts, I slowly began to realize the true beauty that lay within his art. The complexity and detail was not in the external visuals but in the implicit and meaningful messages that they were intended to convey. The satisfied eye is not the end in this case, but only the tool for the more profound and beautiful significance of environmental urgency that strikes the viewer in Yoon's work. Inspired, I asked a few questions of the artist himself.

JustArts: What made you start your crusade for environmental action?

Hoseob Yoon: At an event called the 17th World Jamboree Mondial, I created a poster for a [non-governmental organization]. At that event, a Japanese college student named Miyashita Masayoshi asked me what an NGO was and how many volunteers were working towards preserving the environment, and I didn't know. Afterward, I looked it up and was spurred to activism. After that moment, I was changed.

JA: Why did you come to Brandeis University?

HY: There is the distinguished artist practitioner residency. It is a project with the Ethics Center. They chose one person from the world, and I was invited.

JA: What do you do with the designs when you make them? Do you sell them to companies or do you use them mostly for protesting and activism?

HY: It's mostly for my own personal gratification but I do make these projects sometimes with my students. I occasionally sell these designs to companies. And also for the media as well, to get the message out.

JA: Are these campaigns in exhibition in Korea as well?

HY: Yes, these are often exhibited in Korea-officially once or twice a year. My goal is to bring the message to the people, and so I mingle with the people also to disseminate the idea among everyone.

JA: What do you do in your everyday life to decrease your environmental impact?

HY: Minimize. Use less water, try to make less [carbon dioxide]. I also didn't buy any new clothes since the year 2000. I reuse and repair all my clothing. Also, I'm here, aren't I?

JA: Do you have any suggestions for students to help decrease their impact too?

HY: Have pride in yourself. Be conscious. Be respectful. Be courageous. Just think of the future generations. If I mess up the environment, then what would my progeny be left with? If one changes their attitude and has pride in his self and his world, the actions will follow.