10 Questions with Minh Vinh

Minh Vinh was born in the United States and lives in the state of California. As a kid like many creative minds growing up, Minh held dear drawing with pen and pencil to depict a diverse range of subjects and illustrate mental/physical surroundings. Minh possesses some formal education and training in a design field to supplement a self-taught experience in traditional fine arts. The study within industrial design disciplines unlocked new and evolving perspectives and techniques on all creative realms and avenues. Minh usually strives for an artistic lens portraying a form of authentic self-reflection and creation.

ARTIST STATEMENT

This body of work involves a mixture of illustration and design techniques in multiform manners to realize the full canvas. The artist has devised a number of concepts with various iterations to be a part of the subsequent choosing. The resulting creations were the products of several rounds of shooting and revising physical-world graphic layouts. The pictures that he presents are his personal narratives and commentaries.

Each composition represents one of many portals to a character, a reflection of one's beginning, middle, and beyond. The stories bring about an individual interpretation in accordance with one's own lineal timeline and any offshoot narrative branches. They are a tumbling of negative/positive associations of memories and experiences. The pictures hold a reaction to a personal event's existence whether minuscule or of prominent magnitude. They frame a connecting bridge to one's outline of feelings and emotions that tie in with isolating a fractal of individual history.

INTERVIEW

When did you start experimenting with visual art, and when did you decide to become an artist?

I remember an assignment of mine from the years of grade school. I was probably seven or eight years old at the time. My homeroom teacher introduced a class project with a theme revolving around the world of comics and early animation. I drew up an anthropomorphic superhero character based on a pet goldfish. The classmates mentioned some very positive words towards this little set of crayon and marker drawings I made of this goldfish superhero. I've cherished the memory and held it as the first time I wanted a future career in the visual arts.

I've never needed to stifle my love for anything in relation to visual creativity. In the years growing up, drawing and painting revealed an important avenue one could take to build a structure of foundation and character. I would constantly go through magazine periodicals about automotive interests as a teenager. In the last pages, one would flip through and find advertisement spaces showcasing art and design schools. At the time, my interests in automotive and product design led to enrollment at one of the listed institutions.

From there, my creative path has taken me to an ever-evolving perspective on all forms of visual storytelling. I've gained humbling and mature respect for the realms of illustration, fashion, graphic design, new media, architecture, photography, film, etc., other than the historical prototypical vehicles of two-dimensional and three-dimensional fine art. In recent years, I've devoted more time and energy to becoming someone who creates works incorporating various techniques and mediums that have greater personal value and worth.

What was the biggest lesson you learned while trying to become an artist?

Each and every time I put a piece of myself into a work, project, etc., there's always this inner critical voice making itself heard. It's looming, operating at a constant fluctuating frequency in the backend of my mind, and can swoop in with or without notice. In the past, I've made many mistakes listening and giving into this unwanted voice. There was a time when I looked at projects with mountain peaks of the unattainable. I can recall the instances when certain stages of a work needed minor revisions but instead went overboard. I've overworked concepts to death, thinking they were missing this or that. I've put myself in bad positions in regards to works because I wanted to strive for perfection that didn't exist in any world imaginable. Straying from or losing sight of the true meaning or goal of intention doesn't sit well and is a failure. I try not to set any limits in being a creative person. I'm sure everyone else has held about with the art killer known as procrastination. Speaking for myself, it is born from the same unwelcome voice. Over the process of experience and time, I've learned to better subdue and dissect the inner critical voice.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?

For the longest time, I devoted myself to appeasing others in my endeavors and outlets in life. I've wasted some tools of imagination and innovation on persons that didn't have the proper footing at the time. Every day and until the unfateful day, I feel lucky and fortunate to have an expanding understanding of who I am and what I need to do. A blessed person with a fruitful standing may wander through life, unsure of which path to take, and end up in some aimless sea of void. For whatever reason, I may have been hesitant or naive in the past to express a more authentic version of myself. I want to communicate my actual, personal truths and some that were held back. I'd like to make bridges and connections with the truth in a variety of settings and not become a slave to distilling my unique vision for a lesser concession to others.

What about your inspiration? What artists influence and inspire your work the most?

I'm in an opportune position and very thankful to easily find inspiration in anything - life, death, love, hate, the beautiful and ugly parts of the universe, and the infinite cosmos of the etcetera. I usually look for minute details that are both simultaneously separate and inherent within the confines of a composition. One can train the mind over time and locate the main patterns and rhythms in operation and pick up on the smallest frequencies of any sort. Biased, unbiased and both, I try to bring a second and third set of eyes to frame appearances and interpret meanings from different angles. All of this becomes an additional but much-needed mechanism to further the hunt for inspiration. I find inspiration along and between the edges of a spectrum, whether they are subtle, crafty, and guileful, or boisterous, profane, and transgressive.

It's very difficult to name-drop the ones of the past, present, and future. If one were forced to shout out names to save a dear life, I've respected the hands of Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhardt Richter, Chris Dorland, and Cleon Peterson. One can stop themselves for a living second and watch the poignant performances of Zhang Huan, Marina Abramovic, Chris Burden, or Joseph Beuys. I have in my databanks the almighty words of Jenny Holzer and John Baldessari. The powerful photographic images of James Nachtwey, Don Mccullin, and Trevor Paglen have been seared in my head through their lenses. I have a newfound appreciation and awe for sculpture and architecture through Richard Serra, Phylidia Barlow, Antony Gormley, and Tadao Ando. I smile when I gaze upon the absurd and arousing takes by Bruce Nauman, the YBAs, Nam June Paik, and Paul McCarthy. Others (past or contemporary) have yet to be named, and I can forever add to the Rolodex.

I also draw upon the long catalogue of domestic and foreign television and cinema. I didn't have a mother or father to teach and show me things. In their place was the instruction offered by the tv and films of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I keep my eyes and ears open and am more than willing to lock on to current and future themes for my work with moving images and soundtracks in reference to animation, live-action, feature-length, insightful documentaries, or series / mini-series.

How would you describe your creative process? Where do you start when creating a new painting?

I try to keep the process in simple form and terms. I implement the very best of my ability to avoid problems with overthinking and overworking a level in the creative process. I've mentioned this trouble to others in the recent past and present. The battle of wrestling an idea or concept to an ill-fated stagnant state is something I want to avoid. That is the only mandatory plug-in goal I give myself to facilitate a more efficient workflow.

This is the usual breakdown: First, I gather information and research the relevant parts pertaining to the idea. Afterward, I commit to making ink thumbnails and rough pen sketches. It's an important step because it sets up my eyes and hands to read and cut out the unnecessary fat. The main portion of the execution is a two-stage makeup consisting of a slow or quick rendering phase and the eventual revisions. Sometimes, I'll stop and walk away for a few moments, days, or weeks depending on what I feel needs the correct dial-in. Like the process of others, it's nice to come back and find a certain confidence in the painting, photo, etc. with a refreshed optic.

What's the essential element in your art?

I put forth a genuine, authentic assessment and declaration to works. I've hurt a lot of people in the past. When I was younger, I fabricated stupid lies on top of other lies and paid major consequences. No one gets away easily in life without facing the aftermath. It's too difficult to walk around with myself nowadays if I don't live up to my truth and to the truth of others. I don't want to add more junk/filth to an already existing needless pile one can find walking about in the material, tangible world, or on a flickering surface of a phone screen.

How did you evolve this way of working?

Everything I've done so far stems from or involves my first love of drawing on surfaces. Over a good period of time, I've drawn in a countless number of sketchbooks. Still, to this day, my favorite hobby is doodling on stacks of whatever is readily available. I would record and devise new references for layouts whilst drawing up illustrations depicting the figurative, the abstract and the in-between. I've integrated my sketching techniques and interest in calligraphy / stylized penmanship into the body of a canvas for a number of paintings. My methods of generating marks on paper are also used in my current photographic work.

What do you think about the art community and market? And how did your perception change over the last year due to the pandemic?

I tend to work alone and feel it's the best mode to be in right now. One of the best things I can do is maintain a balance between a calm, serene state and an energized reactive state. My mind gets pretty active quite often. If one were to present creative stimuli, I'm going to come up with questions and formulations at a snappy pace and chain them together with other questions and formulations. It is easier for my lone mind to switch to a lower gear and come to a stop if need be. This immensely helps the focus I need to hone in on the important pieces and what should be discarded. Everything else is excessive extraneous noise. I've worked in collaborative groups and it has its benefits, but I feel things click better when I'm flying solo. I appreciate collaboration the most when production feels a need for another vantage point when suddenly finding oneself at a standstill.

I may not be keen on the current voice of the community, and regardless of the way I work, I've noticed a rise in minds coming together. I've seen a bigger collective voice shine a light on issues they feel are most important in the art community. I'm interested in the whole broad spectrum of creativity, from the lone wolf to the combined congregation.

I'm torn if one asks about my stance on the market. It has been a viable stage to advance a creative's reach and within the same world, I've seen the market take advantage of others for a quick buck. I think one should still navigate the roads with a ceaseless cautious eye. I feel most creatives commit a lot of themselves to bring a work into existence. I have a lot of respect for those who pour blood, sweat, and tears into something they truly believe in. One is very fortunate to exchange with courteous gatekeepers offering a mutual platform. Then there are those that chew you up and spit you out.

What are your thoughts on digital presentations, like fairs and exhibitions, for artists? Do you think these are good opportunities for young artists like yourself?

I feel the long-held traditional ways of exhibiting will be forever relevant. Some works are dull and lifeless without physical interaction and connection. It is critical to examine and experience a work with as many of your senses as possible. I believe in successful works that impart some sort of emotion, leaving the viewer with a range of afterthoughts. If one's goal is to accomplish and further additional territories, then they wouldn't deny these are appropriate. Fairs and exhibitions can be gainful contributions.

Finally, what are your plans for the future? Any exciting projects, exhibitions, or collaborations you are looking forward to?

I think this possessed need of mine to create will outlive my physical body. Living to an old age, I see myself drawing or doing something on my deathbed if that's the grand higher power's intention. I plan to crank out more mixed-media pieces. Its appeal is growing each day and shaping itself to become a current dominant approach. I enjoy mixing old techniques with new mediums. It'll lead to some sort of transfusion of new techniques onto old mediums. Every time I set out to put something together, I hope to anticipate conjuring up a version of myself I've yet to meet.

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