I saw a picture of a tiger playing with a big box at the zoo. It was amazing that all cats, regardless of their size, were attracted to the box. With that experience, I began to paint a series of images of various big cats and small cats enjoying the box. And there is a special story in this painting. In 2018, a puma named Po-rong escaped from a cage at a zoo in South Korea due to the carelessness of a zookeeper. Po-rong was found in a large box not far from the cage about 10 hours after she escaped, and was shot dead on the spot. At that time, there was much controversy over the fact that Po-rong was killed hastily even though she did not leave the zoo and showed no threat to humans. With this painting, I wanted to remember Po-rong, who was born in the zoo and spent eight years in captivity and died in exchange for her first taste of freedom.
