The Mouth-Painting Artist Drawing Dreams, Im Gyeong-sik (Male, Western Painting Artist, Physical Disability)

At the age of nineteen, Im Gyeong-sik experienced a motorcycle accident that left him with total body paralysis. For ten years, he struggled with a sense of helplessness, doing nothing. It wasn't until he turned thirty-one that he picked up a brush with his mouth and began to paint.
Within a year of starting to paint, he participated in group exhibitions, and in 2013, he held his first solo exhibition, followed by six more solo exhibitions. In 2016, he became a member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World.
He appeared in an LGU+ advertisement which garnered 8 million views, and lectured about his story on EBS's <15 Minutes to Change the World>. Through his 'Dreaming' series, he expresses freedom using a goldfish coming out of a fishbowl.