Introduction
When I began teaching Vietnamese to my son, I revisited the picture dictionaries my parents and I used to learn English and Vietnamese. I became fascinated by the narratives embedded in these books and how they reflect the immigrant experience. My residency project, A Vietnamese American Picture Dictionary, pushes and pulls at the picture dictionary format to illuminate the Vietnamese American story. Through drawings, paintings, prints, and an artist book, I hope to embody the process of learning a language—the wonder of words, the slipperiness of meaning, and the humor of translation. As 2025 marks fifty years since the fall of Saigon, I feel an urgency to commemorate how far we’ve come.
Sketches
Currently
So far, I’ve conducted research, sketched, produced prints, and made a large wall drawing. I also created a coloring book version of the picture dictionary.
Pages & More
Chăm Sóc/Care, Screenprint on archival paper, 22 x 18 in, 2024.
Americans/Người Mỹ, digital print on paper 10 X 13 in., 2025.
A Vietnamese American Picture Dictionary Coloring Book, Saddle stitched book (ink, paper) 5.5 X 8.5 in, 2024.
Drawing Đau Buồn/Chia Buồn (Photo by Nguyên Khôi Nguyễn, 2024)
Supermarket/ Siêu Thị, Digital pigment print on archival cotton paper , 25 X 17.5 in, 2024.
Future Plans
Looking ahead, I will continue to draw from personal history but also examine the effects of colonialism, trauma, racism, and media representation on Vietnamese Americans. I will investigate incidents of conflict, including the Ku Klux Klan attacks against Vietnamese fisherfolk in Texas from 1979 to 1981 and the Stockton schoolyard shooting in 1989 where five southeast asian refugee children were slain.
My findings will be synthesized into sketches, prints, site-specific wall drawings, and a culminating artist book. I plan to exhibit the prints and drawings and present the artist book through readings at bookshops and institutions.