Finding My Own Voice

Painting has always been a part of me.

But for a long time, it was something I kept private.

Growing up in a Vietnamese family, I understood why education meant so much. My parents and grandparents had experienced uncertainty in ways I never had. To them, a university degree represented stability, security, and opportunities they had worked hard to give the next generation.

I understood that.

So before allowing myself to fully pursue art, I first wanted to give my family that sense of security.

I completed my Bachelor's degree. Then my Master's degree.

Only after reaching those milestones did I finally feel ready to share my paintings with the world.

Not because my passion for art had suddenly appeared, but because I finally felt I had earned the freedom to follow it.

Looking back, I realise that I wasn't choosing between art and education.

Education became the foundation that gave me the confidence, and perhaps also gave my family the reassurance, to let me choose a less predictable path.

When I started painting the imagined stories of my grandmother and her generation, I also began reconnecting with a part of myself that had quietly waited for years.

Creating Traces of Her became more than preparing for my first exhibition.

It became the moment I stopped hiding this part of who I am.

For the first time, I allowed myself to stand in front of my paintings and simply say:

❥ This is my work. This is my story.