Illustration means to me: Writing everything I see through my eyes down on those white papers.

When I create: I try my best to make my work both realistic and unrealistic, logic and illogical, personal and general, defined and undefined, detailed and very detailed.

A canvas: Is not only a blank sheet to be fulfilled but also a channel to tell all stories deep down inside artists’ souls.

Graduating as a business student, I hardly made a big decision to turn my life in a different direction. With the giant passion for art, I was immediately into line art. Line art is a way to describe everything with only lines and lines. And I could never deny how hard it was, from an amateur, to stand out, even a bit, from those talented artists.

My love for art is not academic and philosophical. But, simple and immense. Like how I realise the way I convinced the world, that I am too, in love with art. How I’ve managed to raise it up until now was so honest and vulnerable. My journey of jumping from a business-background student to a recognised artist. As enjoyable as telling the world my hidden stories, or as touched, as when I’ve got my first work printed. People might think art is a way to feel real things in an unreal way. I believe it is a real way to feel unreal things.

There is no specific source of inspiration. All my work is created with sorrow and tears, with joy and smile. Like the chain of hills, continuously up and down. Like one’s life, along with tears and happiness, never stops waving. I do not hope that you will love my work, or get impressed by the details. What I expect is that you will find yourself somewhere in them, in those stories I’m trying to tell.

My love for art is not academic and philosophical. But, simple and immense.

There were a lot of works done before I got completely satisfied with “Bounders”. That one I recognise as my first official artwork. “Bounders” was finished based on the idiom “Grass is always greener on the other side”. Every existing individual in the world has their own limitations and suffers. Still, we are not in the others’ shoes and humans were born by greed. One is always longing for “the other’s shoes” without knowing everything has its cost. For no matter which case or shoes are we in, we will for sure face limitations and suffer in those particular situations.

With the motivation given by my team leader, my desire to protect and preserve the Vietnamese soul was awakened. Vietnamese fairy tales are a precious source of lessons. They remind young generations of their origins and to preserve our country’s traditions.

My main obstacle is time management. I have to run my own business and secretly do illustrations at the same time. My hardest challenge is to escape from the huge shadow of my master. As both of us are following the same style, sometimes people mistake my works with my master’s works.

To stand on my own feet, I acknowledge that I need to find my own way to go on with this style. Since I was a child, I always have many little dreams and scenes in my mind. Some are realistic, some are logic, some are romantic but they are all true feelings. Photography, painting or illustration is just a way to make those dreams alive.

I chose illustration by hand drawings. It is like writing your own stories down by lines, by pencil, by pen, by dots. Isn’t it so interesting? In the next 2 years, it would be great if I have my own art studio for displaying artworks and ceramic, where people can come visit, bring home works they love.

Besides, I also dream to show my art over the world, exchange knowledge with international artists and have chances to do solo exhibitions. It doesn’t matter if you were born for art, it matters if you live every second of your life with art. It doesn’t matter if you were born to be an artist, it matters if you keep practising and embrace your whole life with passion.