TRAN NGUYEN

Beren Neale discovers that this illustrator, like her work, exhibits calmness, certainty, poise and power even during times of crisis

- Beren Neale

Tran Nguyen has a strong childhood memory of sitting with her family on a long-haul flight travelling from Vietnam to America. It was 1990, she was three years old and terrified.

“My earliest memory was when I boarded the flight from Can Tho, Vietnam, and I cried my head off until the flight attendants placated me with cantaloupe,” she recalls. Her family had been sponsored by the US to immigrate. “The embassy assisted us, donating clothes and finding a temporary home until dad was able to find a job,” she says.

But Tran wasn’t just flying away from “an impoverished life.” She was also travelling towards the promise and potential of a new life dedicated to art – regardless of her parents’ plans for her. “My parents wanted me to be a doctor,” says Tran, and they took some convincing when a passion for watching and reproducing her favourite anime characters eventually turned into voicing an interest in studying art at college.

Looking back, Tran totally understands their concerns: “My parents are the sweetest and only mean well. All they want is to know that I’ll be able to take care of myself financially once they’re not around, and becoming an artist was such a foreign concept to them.”