ERINPHAM
ABOUT ME
Finding Oneself
Being the youngest child, you always feel like you are walking in the shadow or have to follow your older sibling footsteps. But I was a little different, I didn’t wanted to be like any of them…I didn’t want to become a doctor or make a lot of money. I was only attracted to the large painting on the wall of my old home in Vietnam and the rag doll that my aunt had made for me.
My aunt was a renowned artist in Vietnam, pre the Vietnam war and way before I was born. She left Vietnam to France to continue her art career and school than later to the United State. I have never met her but have heard many stories about her. The painting on the wall as I remembered my mom called it “Big Sister” haunted me just as much as it haunted my mom (My mom was very afraid of my aunt, her big sister, because my aunt would always locked her in a room making her practice piano, while my aunt was painting.
The rag doll was a present for me when I was 6 yrs old, handmade by my aunt and like the painting it followed me. I knew, I wanted to become an Artist but I also didn’t wanted to be a shadow of my aunt.
Who are you…Who am I ?
E-Tian: just a lonely star in the sky. My name is Erin aka E-Tian.
Real is not what you could see or touch…it’s what’s in your heart and soul, but only if you believe in it. So who is to say that we are all not just living in a dream. We are just a made up vision of this world…you and me. This is our awaken dream..open the door to it.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
FUN FACTS
The Child Artist
After my aunt has passed away in the United States, my family and I moved from Vietnam to Scranton, PA. I have an opportunity to take art class and violin…doing what I wanted to do, but it was not exactly like that. Coloring in the coloring book was not me. I remember our 3rd grade class project was to draw our violin. My violin drawing was only half of the violin, it was not like any other violins drawn by all the other kids. It was not colored in. When I turned in the project, the teacher made me redo it, saying it was not finished and it was not a violin…I cried and say no. I was sent home that day because I was ill. I came back after a week of being sick and saw my drawing has gotten displayed in the school wall. In an unfamiliar places with all the unfamiliar faces, Art was the way I express myself.
*The drawing above is a redrawing of my original violin drawing I did 28 yrs ago.
I’m Who I’m
I continued studying art and went to a high school that allowed me to major in art and language. Practicing and learning different mediums and techniques of arts from painting, drawing, sculpting, screen printing to photography, I was finding who I am. I was in the National Arts Honor Society, but I was breaking all the rule, developing my own technique and my style to break away from the shadow of my aunt. I have never met her or saw any of her arts except for the one painting on our old home and the rag doll, but her artist stories inspired me. And if she was still a live it would probably help me but it also probably would not, because I wanted to be me.
In 2000 my art teacher took one of my painting to entered the National Art Contest in PA and I won First place as well as a scholarship to The University of the Art. My mom said that it was my aunt looking down on me and it was her blessing me. But to me, this was a confidence booster a step for me in finding myself and breaking out that shell/shadow and becoming an artist I’m today.