My body of work aims to express the cultural experiences of a Vietnamese-American through highly detailed and colorful depictions of food and tradition. In addition to the beauty of the abundant culture, I also aim to express the isolation that comes with living as a first-generation Vietnamese-American person. My upbringing is integral to my practice and my experiences of living between two worlds has not only shaped myself but my art to where it is now. 

I find my artwork to stick between both dry and wet mediums to show the duality of my technical skill but also to represent the duality of growing up in a Vietnamese household while living in America. I utilize colored charcoal pencils, chalk pastel pencils, or acrylic depending on how much surface area I would need to cover within a certain time-frame. The subjects of my art heavily rely on the beauty and safety of food, as well as the casual racism that ethnic food is victim to. As a child, growing up with a different home-cooked meal every day was something to bond over with family. Despite this, this same welcoming food would be ridiculed by the smell, the taste, or the casual racism by other children who were parroting their own environment. I focus on these themes because it has become trendy to love these diverse foods but my culture and experience is not a trend. 

My practice continues to shed light on the love and bond that Vietnamese cuisine elicits with these drawings and paintings. I focus on foods that are typically shared or eaten together at a family dinner. I strive to incorporate more commentary on the dilution of my culture within my body of work. My large “Hot Pot” painting shares that sense of community with all of the ingredients laid beside a central pot where everyone eats from. A seafood boil painting is on the horizon tying into my family’s love of seafood and my father’s childhood living next to the pacific ocean.