‘Hybrid Romance’

Lawrence T. Yun is in his element at the Fullerton Arboretum, where he recently spent an afternoon with the students in his watercolor class, seeking inspiration amid the flora. He's holding an Australian grasstree. Photo: Connie Yoon

NPR Coverage

The exhibit prompted two National Public Radio reports. One is part of an “Art Talk” segment on KCRW. "Lawrence Yun’s watercolors are just spectacular,” pronounces art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp in her report. A feature story about Yun and his artwork for the NPR Intern Edition, includes comments from the artist.

Prime-Time Viewing

Lawrence T. Yun’s work has appeal not only in the fine arts community, but in the pop culture realm, as well. When LA-based representatives of television and film production companies are invited by fine arts agents to view the works of artists for possible use as set decorations, Yun’s watercolors attract their attention.

His paintings have been hung on sets for episodes of “Knight Rider,” “Monk,” “Eli Stone” and three seasons of “The Guardian” television series, plus a few films: “Meet the Fockers,” “Transformers” and “Daddy Day Care.”

In such instances, Yun explained, the artwork typically is rented for filming, then returned to the artist, who has no notion of where or how the painting will appear on screen, until after the film’s release or the program airs. Sometimes, those scenes end up on the cutting-room floor. In any case, the artist is paid for the rental, even if the artwork is never shown.

Yun laughs while recounting how stars Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman can be seen arguing in front of one of his paintings in a scene from 2004’s “Meet the Fockers” and that for some reason, his paintings tend to end up in bedrooms more than anywhere else on set.

In the film “Daddy Day Care,” the camera wanders through a home’s corridors at a child’s eye level. On that journey, one of Yun’s paintings is visible in the background, inside the bedroom of the character played by Eddie Murphy.

One film that got away, whose makers ultimately passed on displaying Yun’s painting after renting it, judged it “too sophisticated” for the taste of the young teen played by Jennifer Garner in the 2004 release “13 Going on 30.”

Yun describes the on-screen art placements as “purely visual decoration, purely for the scene” and are not among his frequent pursuits. Still, he welcomes the compensation, and they do make for real-world connections with students, who sometimes tell him they’ve seen his artwork on TV or video. “They get a kick out of that.”

They also see how it’s possible for artists to balance “the professional aspects” of their work with “much broader” pursuits, if they choose to.

— Paula Selleck