Through painting, I use materiality to reaffirm the material world and my presence in it. My aesthetics are informed by my interest in graphic languages and the history of painting. I adopt elements from various visual cultures.
The visual vocabulary I use is idiosyncratic, but it also serves as evidence of my biography. Growing up in a Vietnamese-American household in Texas, I was exposed to imagery associated with both Vietnamese/Chinese and American culture. To me, red envelopes and paper lanterns sit comfortably in the same hierarchy as other assorted American kitsch. I embrace the tropes of both cultures in my work, to give them an opportunity to create new stories with familiar languages. By borrowing aspects of widely disseminated images, I create accessibility for the viewer. This nuanced hybridization is emblematic of my identity, which reinvents, or at least calls into question, expectations associated with Eastern and Western cultures.