Art Daybook: How to make a dinosaur smile

The piece: "Time for You and Joy to Get Acquainted"

The artist: JooYoung Choi

Where: In the show "A Better Yesterday," through Sept. 3 at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Why: Who doesn't welcome a little more happiness these days? Few people other than the artist — and perhaps her husband, Trenton Doyle Hancock — can unravel the full system of her alternate world, which is populated with dozens of colorful characters who guide, protect or antagonize her alter-ego, C.S. Watson, as she navigates a swirling, paracosmic universe of self-discovery.

A native of Korea who was sent to the U.S. as an infant to be adopted, Choi grew up feeling different and lonely, one of the only Asian children in Concord, New Hampshire. Her imagination, a riotously vivid place that never seems to fail her, was her salvation.

CAMH  Director Bill Arning said he hesitated at first to give her yet another solo turn as one of three featured artists in his show "A Better Yesterday," because she has already received so much attention in recent years. Exhibitions at Lawndale Art Center, Project Row Houses, DiverseWorks and Anya Tish Gallery have shown her facility not only with an epic narrative but with painting, sculpture, multimedia performance and installation.

But she always has something new up her sleeves, and even Arning was surprised when she showed up with this soft sculpture of an almost lifesize grinning brontosaurus in a flower patch. It's pure sunshine. 

He explains: She felt bad for the brontosaurus because scientists have declared that it didn't exist. Assuming it would be sad about that, she covered it in flowers "so it would be happy again" and gave it some company from her "Cosmic Womb" mythology.

Riding sidesaddle are a couple of polka-dotted humanoids (perhaps suggesting Choi and Hancock, who has his own complicated mythology); they appear to have leapt to the center of the gallery from the cut-out canvas of the nearby painting "Quantum Soup." (Choi's paintings have become increasingly complex.) The octopus Putt Putt and Yellow Bunny are also there. 

Choi likes to say that kids shouldn't be the only ones allowed to enjoy imaginary friends. Even the soft "rocks" of "Time for You and Joy to Get Aquainted" are animated and purposeful. They're covered with eyes, and meant to be held and shook over your head when you're in need of good ideas.

You don't have to get any of the story to feel the warmth. Watch out, "Sesame Street."

Bookmark Gray Matters. It's a a riotously vivid place that never seems to fail you. It's pure sunshine.