Local spotlight: Misoo Filan

"Surrounded," Misoo Filan's large acrylic and mixed media on panel, depicts a woman lying on her back naked in a sepia-toned forest. Atop her, with one leg on either side of her belly is a baby sucking on her breast.

"Twinkle Twinkle" by Misoo Filan

The eyes of the woman, whose long hair is flowing around her head, look skyward. Deer, cows, ducks and other animals, some brightly colored, stand by watching as the baby seems to be sucking the last bit of energy from her exhausted mother's body.

The work addresses Filan's concerns about taking care of herself so she can continue to care for her 3-year-old daughter.

"One of my fears is: What if I die? What if I get hurt or am immobile? Who's going to take care of Lily?" the 32-year-old Boca Raton artist reveals. "So I made these imaginary animals around me, like I was calling them. They're not real, so I made them unrealistic colors and sizes and was asking them to come and please help her."

Filan, who is part of "Tap Into Miniature," a group exhibit that has been showing at The Art Place Wynwood in Miami, began turning to her art in a time of need at age 18. She had been living with her father in Korea for most of her life, and when he died, she had to move to New Jersey to live with her mother, a woman she says she didn't know very well.

Finish reading Arterpillar's Sun-Sentinel story on Misoo Filan.

You can view images of Filan's work in the slide show above. To read the accompanying descriptions, click the lower right hand corner of the slide show ... and then click on "show info" (at top) so you can read the text for each ...  or simply view the Flickr set.