Imagining the World My Grandmother Once Lived In

The women in my paintings are not portraits of my grandmother.

They are my way of imagining the world she once lived in - the people she met, the women she shared her life with, and the everyday moments that shaped her memories.

Because I only knew my grandmother as Bà, I never had the chance to see the life she had before becoming my grandmother. I never saw the streets she walked through when she was young, the conversations she had with friends, the relationships she built, or the small moments that became part of her story.

Through my paintings, I try to imagine those invisible parts of her life.

I imagine her surrounded by sisters, friends, neighbors, and other people from her generation. People who laughed together, shared stories, helped each other, disagreed, dreamed, and simply lived their everyday lives.

When I look at old photographs of Vietnamese people from the early 20th century, I often wonder about the moments that existed beyond the photograph.

What happened before this moment?

What happened afterwards?

Who were these people when nobody was watching?

Many historical images show Vietnamese women in a very specific way: elegant, quiet, and composed. These images preserve a certain beauty, but they only capture one side of life.

I wanted to imagine the moments that were not recorded.

Women talking together.

Women looking lost in thought.

Women showing emotions that are not always gentle or perfect.

❥ Women simply being themselves.

Because my grandmother and the people of her generation were not just figures from the past. They were individuals with their own personalities, feelings, dreams, and stories.

The women and scenes in my paintings are imagined, but they are inspired by a real longing, to understand the life my grandmother once had and the world that shaped her.

Maybe I can never know all of her stories.

But through these imagined moments, I can keep traces of them alive.