“Bà Mẹ Em”

“Bà Mẹ Em” 24in x 30in, acrylic paint on canvas, 2025

This painting is more than a portrait… it is a lineage. A conversation across generations, spoken not through words, but through fabric, posture, and presence.

Three women stand together: my grandmother, my mother, and me. Each of us wears the áo dài, the traditional Vietnamese dress. But more than that, each of us wears a different era. Time lives in the folds of these garments. My grandmother’s áo dài holds the weight of war and survival; my mother’s, the quiet strength of rebuilding; mine, the tension between inheritance and individuality.

“Bà Mẹ Em” is an offering to the women who shaped me, and to the unspoken strength of generations. It is a reflection of Vietnamese identity… not as something fixed, but as something living, evolving, and deeply rooted in love.