Self-portrait with orange T-shirt (Oil on canvas, 2021) is a literal representation of
myself. There is no visual metaphor that one would need to find to understand the
underlying message. The painting is just me with my head laying on a surface and
my eyes gazing directly towards the viewers. All I want is to portray a state of restful
contemplation amongst a life filled with chaos and confusion.

In this work, I use colors and compositions as representations of myself and my
feelings. The neutral and earthy tones are my way of depicting tranquility, while
the dominating orange adds a heat that describes my characteristic: passionate
and some occasional bad temper. The greenish shade, on the other hand, helps to
balance that heat out and brings about a sense of a melancholic loner. I am, in fact,
a lost human being on a track to discover myself.

Artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Ryman used the whiteness and blank
spaces in their paintings to create a meditative state of mind, and I would like to
create a similar psychological effect in my self-portrait. If the busy part focuses on
the shifts in colors and shadows on the face, the hand and its reflection, the rest
of the composition consists of more solid shades, providing a breather from the
stimulating color palette. The look in the eyes also adds a factor as it does not
express any particular emotion. It could be that I am looking into a blank, infinite
and undefined space.

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Linh

Self-portrait with orange T-shirt

Portrait of Mom

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