between the lines of realist and surrealist

I was once told: “Go your own way. Seek your own ideas. Create your own visions.” I listened closely. The first time my art teacher saw one of my paintings, in which I had portrayed the power of an Asian Tiger, he commented, “You are standing on the line between realism and surrealism. Keep it this vision—never give it up.”

However, even the most original and striking vision cannot emerge from nowhere; I have had great influences in on my painting. Three artists in particular, although extremely different in attitude, technique, even the eras in which they worked, have had a momentous effect on me. I have of course always strived to develop my own style, but Salvador Dali, Lorna Hannett and Pae White have deeply affected the direction of my vision, my choice of materials and my general attitude toward art.

It was around the time of my teacher’s comment that I was on the way to discovering who I am and how to show my mind deeply through art, and it was then that I saw my first Dali painting, “The Persistence of Memory, 1931.” For me the painting detailed how memory conquers even endless time. Time had gone, ants had destroyed clock, other clocks had melted, everything was dead, but memory remained forever. I instantly felt that I understood; I was moved and inspired.

Dali’s importance has been well documented and he is famous as one of the great surrealists. For me his great impact on art was his willingness to explore the psyche, entering practically delusional states of mind and then accurately and meaningfully reproducing what he saw there on canvas. With his “Paranoiac Critical” and “Oniric-Critical” methods he found a new way of perceiving reality that he defined as "irrational knowledge" based on a "delirium of interpretation." Dali referred to this work as “hand-painted dream photographs”—physical, painted representations of the hallucinations and images he would see while in his paranoid state.

One can imagine the effect this had on a young painter who saw things differently from others in a very conservative and old fashioned culture like Viet Nam’s! I felt released, emboldened, trusted with an important secret. Of course I could not do what Dali did or do it like he did it, but his adventures helped me understand, appreciate and be courageous with my own thoughts and feelings about art. Perhaps most simply but effectively, Dali referred to the "ingenuity of childhood," in which he did not paint as a child would, but maintained an open mind and the curiosity and excitement of the child throughout one's life. This too had a tremendous effect on my work.

Thus Dali shaped me by showing me possibilities and freedom, and giving a name to something I thought unnamable. If you refer to the two selections from my “Slum Series” included, you will see my own version of how what I saw growing up as a child has influenced the woman as artist, and how I have created my own “hand-painted dream photographs.”

As I progressed in my life and art—they always move hand in hand—I began pondering a mix of surrealism and realism. It was at this time that I saw “Mary Ann Rose,” created by Lorna Hannett, a Canadian wildlife artist. Hannett has won numerous awards for her wide variety of subjects depicted in realistic style. Primarily self-taught, she utilizes a variety of mediums including acrylics, watercolour, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and one that really captured me, “scratchboard art.”

I like Hannett’s work not only for its technique but for what it depicts. She is a very good artist who can breathe the soul of her objects into art. Looking at the “Mary Ann Rose” picture, one can feel each light movement of rose petals, smell the scent of rose perfume, touch the dew on the leaf… That is the real life, but underneath the real life as a rose, there has a different meaning. It is “Life is a rose, it blossoms and then fades quickly. Nothing can maintain the same condition forever.” In its way, that is the same message as Dali's “The Persistence of Memory.”

I don’t paint animals, children and natural life studies like Hannett, but I thought, “What if I make my fantasies in scratchboard like she did? How will my abstracts look like if created with different methods and materials than the traditional oil and canvas?” So, I tried it.

ScratchArt or scratchboard art as it is commonly called is done on a material called Claybord Black. It is a masonite board covered in white Kaolin clay and then sprayed with India ink. Drawings are placed onto the board using white transfer paper. Then a small Xacto knife (#11 blade) or a scalpel is used to make small, sometimes tiny scratches in varying depths, revealing the white beneath—and eventually the image emerges. This can be left as is at this point or one can “color” it, using thin coats of acrylic paint or the colored inks made especially for claybord. The paint is scratched in again and again to achieve the depth of color and highlights desired. It is then coated with a spray sealer to protect the finished piece.

This technique resembles etching or engraving in theory, with the difference supplied by the materials. I created the engravings in my portfolio “Sapa’s Spirit” and “The End of the Day” with this technique. I sketch the layout on white transfer paper, then transfer it to the wood board with the negative side. I use my wood cut knife set, chose the right blade for each part of the drawing. I then print it onto a special Vietnamese paper known as “giay do” with different colors of ink, paint or powder. I feel it is possible to create surreal subjects by utilizing this special way of engraving, etching or “scratching.”

The third major influence I can cite is from the new generation—it is Californian Pae White, a contemporary artist whose work is extremely impressive.

White works on the borderlines between art, design and graphics. While working on numerous advertising projects she developed an idiosyncratic style of layout which has been described as ”modernist mannerism.” Her graphic designs give a sense of vivid colors and fragility and her sculptures share these characteristics. What particularly caught my eye are her mobiles, which she creates mobiles from fine slips of paper on nylon thread. As has been noted, this forms “a dense, shimmering, ornamental network.»

Sometimes White goes the opposite direction, creating solid masses, such as “Birds and Ship, 2000.” Such creations are formed with layers of orange Plexiglas lying on the floor. Laminate glue is applied unevenly between the layers to create patterns, giving an impression both of solidity and flowing movement.

I also like her “Clock, 2000,” which is a series of twelve cardboard - wall clocks in different colors, made using the simple techniques of cutting out and folding. The clocks do not tell the time in the usual way. They have their own mechanism, and each one stands for a sign of the zodiac. They are surreal, fun and though-provoking. White’s abstract, handcrafted – creations don’t serve a function and cannot be classified as “design.” They also don’t seem to follow any ideology or theory. Rather, they communicate through the hallucinatory effect of the solid impenetrable surfaces that cover them. They are simultaneously beautiful and impenetrable, so that is why they appeal so strongly to me.

White is a great influence on me for different reasons. Most obviously, our work is similar—not in appearance, but in basic theory. Like me, she likes to play with materials, utilizing anything from glass, string and laminated FedEx waybills to wire, thread, newsprint, and snakeskin on various creations.

White’s explorations with materials strike a deep chord in me. I have always been very interested in working with different materials, believing that any and each kind of material allows me different perspectives and feelings, and this in turn allows me to harness and apply my ideas and make me visions be realised.

Until recently I have not considered myself a contemporary artist and have not created anything similar to Pae White’s art. But this changed when I began developing my ideas in the autumn of 2005 for my next exhibition. I grew up in an impoverished district of Ho Chi Minh City, although I have wonderful memories from childhood. In 2003, the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City began a social program to destroy the slums in my old neighborhood and replace them with low-income housing. The work commenced in the summer of 2005, giving rise to my inspiration. The slums are now gone and new buildings are being completed in order to relocate thousands of people. But somehow, the buildings are as ugly as prisons and the people in them are even more miserable than before.

This drove me to create my “Slum and Sunshine Life Series,” to depict both the present and the past, in order to retain the images that have lasted in my mind for twenty years. As noted earlier, the series springs from a dream I have had since childhood. At this time, everyone in my country was desperately poor. The Vietnamese had a saying then: “No one is richer, no one is poorer.” We all lived in the same situation, in the same kind of houses—some, like mine, made of cardboard—that are known as “slums.” Since that time, some of my childhood friends have become wealthy, some not, but all of us have retained unforgettable good memories of our childhood. We played under the rain, swam in green rivers, ran through the noisy markets... I want to keep our wonderful childhood memories alive through my slum series as a gift for all the people who were there with me, showing our wonderful life amidst the squalor that surrounded us. I also want those who were never there and never knew it to know it, feel and understand it.

Utilizing an array of materials, some of them “found” and others carefully designed, the first two selections in the series are “DAY” and “NIGHT,” as these are the two more important terms during the 24 hours of a day. The new modern buildings and the old poor paper slums are mixed together. They have shown their “beauties” under the light and dark and the beauty of the souls that inhabit them—not of the place where they are located or the materials of which they are constructed.

With the “Slum and Sunshine Life” series I am standing between the lines of realist and surrealist. My next piece in the series will push this even further. It may well be something of a mix between abstract painting, scratching technique or working with many different kinds of materials. In my opinion, the differences of style, technique and materials support to my art and make it more impressive. This is the reason I choose to be a person who is “between the lines.” Being there, I can fully express my mind, my heart, my thoughts and instincts, desires and sensibilities and achieve my goal of making art come to life and in doing so, to have people receive my art as a gift of life.

It can be seen that all three artists I have discussed here—Dali, Hannett and White—have shaped my ideas, perspectives and use of materials. My work looks nothing like theirs, yet is filled with their inspiration. As Dali said: "My whole ambition in the pictorial domain is to materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision..it makes the world of delirium pass onto the plane of reality." Yes, the step from reality to dream is just a thin line but this line is so powerful for my art. I choose it as the way to go forward.

*Life on the river - Color wood engraving, 60x60cm, 2002