In the lull of the work in progress art I have, sharing some of my older works again. This time, it is my capstone project from my undergraduate studies (some of which have been shared on tumblr before during its WIP stage). In addition to my thesis, I created a three-piece painting series, trying to visual describe the stages a member of the Vietnamese American second generation goes through in their culture here. 

There tends to be a lot of miscommunication and want of understanding between our parent generation and us, which creates a lot of tension and a lot of pressure for cultural expectation. The first of this, I named “Conflict.”

While all these pieces are still rough, the second piece of my series focused on dealing with these struggles and is the beginning of trying to find out what was the source of these frustrations. In a way, it involves a lot of backtracking and finding out the history of events that ripple in the decisions and actions of our family members and the way we interact with them.

Thus, learning out the influences of my parent’s immigration after the Vietnam War and their personal sacrifices gave name to this one as “Discovery.”

Last piece of my capstone series is probably the roughest one out of the group, considering it is a manifestation of a work-in-progress of a current state of mind as I contemplate the earlier two artworks. Trying to mend communication patches and just finding the middle way between two cultures is a long process, but it still gives name to this one as “Resolve.”

Undergraduate Capstone Project (Conflict, Discover, Resolve)

Acrylics

36” x 72” ( 36” x 24” ea.)

Jan. 2012