When Kim Kyung-hee first picked up a traditional Korean paint brush, she wasn’t chasing a lifelong dream. A former stay-at-home mom with a master’s in Western painting, she was recovering from illness and searching for something to anchor her again. What she found, unexpectedly, was minhwa — a once-dismissed form of Korean folk painting rooted in everyday hopes and symbols of good fortune. “During that period of rest, I asked myself what I truly wanted to do,” she recalled in an interview with The Korea Times at her home studio. “That’s when I enrolled in a folk painting class.” That decision reshaped her life. Today, Kim is a full-time minhwa artist whose colorful paintings echo centuries of tradition while connecting with a new generation of viewers. Minhwa flourished during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), created primarily by anonymous, non-elite artists. Unlike court or litrerati painting, it was closely tied to everyday life, beliefs and rituals, often decorating ordinary homes. Common subjects include animals, flowers, birds, fish and books — all imbued with auspic