Meet An Mien Nguyen | Artist & Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with An Mien Nguyen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi An Mien, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The biggest risk I have taken was to pursue a degree in Studio Art.

At the time, I was 18, expected to go into law or medicine, and I just knew there was no way I was going to spend the next several years of my life slogging through classes I hated for a career I didn’t want. I left my Psychology orientation half-way through and snuck into the art building. I took out loans and spent the next four years getting roasted in critiques and pulling my hair out reading theory but I was so proud that I was following my heart.

It was tough, and after graduation I got a Master’s in Education, because how many art students graduate and “make it”? I knew I needed something more concrete and now teach Pre K-5 at a fine arts school. And I love it. It’s not perfect, and just because you do what you love does not mean it’s not *work*, but I get to engage in my favorite hobby everyday. Even if my first dream of becoming the next Damien Hirsch didn’t pan out, I still take commission work and remain an artist in my own right.

Really though, any life decision can be a risk; you never know what will happen until it happens. The only thing that really matters is what you do afterwards. Do the scary thing, but also be willing to explore alternatives, just in case.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I do a lot of portraits, fan art and have been fixated on color and light, but for the most part, view these as practice or fun afterthoughts. My serious art is a lifelong body of work called The Immigration Series.

This collection houses reproductions of my family photos as artifacts of our journey to the United States. Along with chronicling our time in Kuala Lumpur’s refugee camp, repatriation back to Vietnam, and then the first decade or so as Americans, it also serves as an exploration of identity and memory, and how childhood mythos can become adulthood imprints.

It began as a watercolor series while I was at UNT. I’d been struggling to merge my preference of figurative art with the abstract standards of the Painting program so I started very small and focused on lines and patterns in clothing. The first official piece concentrated on what my parents and I wore to the airport. It was 1998 and not only was fashion different from when I was currently painting it, but also different between two countries. Our best clothes were still somewhat anachronistic and our presence as we travelled from one world to the next remained uncanny despite our efforts.

I began to hone in on this uncanny feeling with the following works, and then picked up steam and continued with it throughout the rest of the series. On the way, I explored the idea of time creating holes in childhood memory and how memories also become distorted by how other people relay them to us.

Finally, the last tenet of the series is how immigration reshapes identity in active and passive ways. One of my favorites is an image of my parents in front of their first house. I’ve reproduced the darkened doorway where my dad’s about to emerge, my mom standing on the walkway looking into the camera, and throughout this image, there are large gaps of color and space missing– my parents themselves are vague approximations– but there is a clearly visible American flag in the front yard next to a pinwheel. This had been the dream for them (and by extension, me): an American house, American clothes, American life. My parents split up soon after, and I hardly remember anything about the house other than the flag and the pinwheel in the front yard.

This series is so highly personal and emotional for me, so for a long time I didn’t think it was interesting to other people who weren’t my family (my parents are still on the fence about it haha!), but I had a show in Dallas and so many different attendees shared their own stories about cultural differences and how these images resonated with them. I cried a lot! It was really comforting!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Full disclosure: I have been away from DFW in the last 6 years, but I still have my favorite hangouts!

So first, we would have a whole Denton day because I spent ages 18-24 in Vans wandering the square. Okay, so I’d take them to the UNT Art building so I could very quickly relive my traumas and get in the right mindset (“Ummm your painting is not… subversive enough…”, thanks Granola Karen). Then, we’d hit up Rooster’s Roadhouse for bbq, Thai Ocha for pineapple fried rice, Barley & Board for a burger, Royal’s Bagels for a cinnamon roll the size of your face, Oak Street Draft House for the most incredible cucumber margarita ever, Zach’s New Orleans Style Shaved Ice for what feels like straight up wizardry in a cup. And then it’d just be a night of bar hopping up and down Fry St.

The next day, to wind down from the hangover, we head to the museums for quiet time. The DMA, Perot, even the Arboretum. After the hangover passes, we’d go to Cidercade Dallas and play any game where the controllers aren’t too sticky, or maybe watch a movie at the Angelika Theater. I’d also show them the Carrolton area– Karaoke, Korean BBQ, the huge bread/pastry culture– Viet places for Banh mi, Pho, and Viet coffee.

If it’s the summer (which, 8 months out of the year in Texas, it is), we’ll definitely swim! And then, sopping wet, because no one would even bat an eye considering the rest of the outfits, go check out how wild anime conventions have gotten lately.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to thank my parents, of course, for trying their best to understand a daughter who is so drastically different from them. We are separated by language, generation, and culture, but home is where they are, always. My partner, Miguel, for introducing me to great food and the idea that pursuing happiness is not a selfish act. My best friend, Thanh, who helps me unplug my brain. My UNT professors, Jim Burton and the late Millie Giles, who came in towards the end of my Studio degree and made art jargon comprehensible. And finally, anyone who’s been kind enough to commission art or buy a print from me because impostor syndrome is real and encouragement is always appreciated.

Website: http://anmiennguyen.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snowfawns_art/

Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/anmiennguyen