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Posted at 05 Apr, 13:45h in Links by Stacy Nguyen 0 Comments

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What Does ‘Cultural Appropriation’ Actually Mean?

stacynguyencreative

I am having a hard time thinking of a caption for

I am having a hard time thinking of a caption for this one because #monday. Anyway, this illustration is part of a series that I spend months working on. And it took months because I did the first round of concepts over the course of a couple nights. And then I took like, an eight-month break (LOLOL, you know how it goes!), only to pick it up again and finish in a flurry of 2 a.m.-style productivity on a Saturday night. I know I'm not the only one who operates this way. I feel like a lot of creative types do. I wouldn't want my doctor to work like this, though. I would want my doctor to be consistent and methodical. isn't it interesting how our personality type and how we operate in the world inform who we end up being? This got unexpectedly deep.

Happy New Year's Eve! Here's my mostly-annual @nwa

Happy New Year's Eve! Here's my mostly-annual @nwasianweekly LNY cover. I love Northwest Asian Weekly very much, so it's always so special to be able to contribute in this way. This illustration reflects the community aspect of the lunar new year and how it's not just about ushering the new year, but also about spending time with family and loved ones in the hopes that the bonds carry through the rest of the year.
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Shoutout to @itsmehan_8, layout editor and awesome graphic designer. Her work is beautiful. She's been a wonderful source of support for me in my work. She is so generous. And she is always so loving and careful and protective of my illustrations. Just an amazing designer to work with.
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Also shoutout to @ruthremi, editor of the Weekly. Cuz she's cool and man, her job is not very glamorous, but very important to the local API community.

There's a fun not-too-uncommon idiosyncrasy about

There's a fun not-too-uncommon idiosyncrasy about me that often throws new friends for a loop, and that's my discomfort with earnestness. I remember when I was a kid drawing doodles for class assignments, I would feel a lot of internal tension when, around Valentine's Day, the teacher would be like, "Draw love! Draw a heart! Draw your family!"
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I used to respond with, "Hey, can you not art direct me?"
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JKJKJK. I actually just obediently did what my teacher asked the class to do because I really wanted to get good grades. But I would always "smudge" my drawings. I'd always add a little extra-extra flavor so that I would feel better. Often it was blood. I love drawing drippy things, so I put blood on hearts, on my family members, on doggies, whatever. I know sometimes blood makes stuff look dark and kind of violent and that's why people are uncomfortable with its presence. But I think also, blood makes stuff feel more alive and real and less sterile.
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This illo is part of a series I've been working on as a for-fun project. Imma share pieces of it bit by bit until it's very obvious what this is. And don't guess correctly too early! I like to maintain the illusion that I am clever!!!!

Hey, all! I wanted to share some posters I illustr

Hey, all! I wanted to share some posters I illustrated in the course of my super casual, semi-distant friendship with @susanlieu for different iterations of her 140LBS show (directed by @sporkalob) i've been blessed to be able to see Susan evolve as an artist over the years. The pandemic has really made it harder for performers to do their craft, but Susan overcomes, and she's bringing VIRTUAL SHOWS of 140LBS to your screens this month. It's a double header. Buy tix via link in HER bio: @susanlieu.
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Fun fact: OG yellow poster tends to be ppl's faves. But I favor both remixes more.

Home is where the heart is. You're my bloody Valen

Home is where the heart is. You're my bloody Valentine. My bleeding heart. ❤❤

Here's a slideshow of past Lunar New Year lewks ov

Here's a slideshow of past Lunar New Year lewks over the years that I did mostly for @nwasianweekly (the last one in there was for @bb6twpopup, and NWAW was where I met @bb6twpopup!). So I'm supposed to be delivering an ox-themed cover for NWAW soon, so I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for these old illustrations.
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Northwest Asian Weekly was where I essentially started my career. A lot of people don't know this because my work has shifted a lot over the years, but my background is journalism, and I was trained in writing (my degree is a writing degree, not art). When I was a 23-year-old, Assunta Ng (NWAW's publisher) took a huge leap of faith and hired my super unqualified ass to be the editor of her newspaper. And I was really able to hone so many skills and grow there --- obviously as a writer, journalist, and editor --- but also that was where my design and illustration work first started in a for real way.
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I completely learned how to design and layout a newspaper in that job (and through the guidance, coaching, and support of one of my great friends in life, @itsmehan_8). I learned the Adobe Suite BECAUSE OF HER and her graciousness in letting me infringe on her job and do some design work for the paper.
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And long story short, I owe my current career to Northwest Asian Weekly. I do a lunar new year cover almost every year for them. I feel a lot of pressure to honor the relationship and to make something that will help them move more copies --- especially in this year, with COVID, which has hit them and other small businesses/newspapers significantly.
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TYTYTY to ethnic community papers and hyperlocal press! BUY A FUCKING AD IN NWAW!!! (I know that won't work. But I still felt like I should declare it, all the same.)

Here's the second in the Mama Nguyen series. This

Here's the second in the Mama Nguyen series. This is my mom in the 90s with her zodiac animal, the water buffalo/ox.
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I illustrated this specific tết series instead of drawing cute ox animals lighting fireworks and lion-dancing cuz to me, well, I don't really do those things. We are fairly insular when we celebrate tết. Realizing this made me think about how cross-generational cultural practices can be intimate and really hinge on a person or a few people --- the ones that push their families to follow traditions and thus keep the traditions alive. For my family, my mom is that person.
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Just yesterday she told me to go home today to cúng ông táo, which she translates into like, "giving respects to the kitchen genie." It's like, if she wasn't the one to tell us to do these things, we just wouldn't do these things at all and we'd all be fucked for the rest of the year!
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Btw, I tried to color this a little Lisa Frank, for all the other 90s kids out there. Hi! Hi! (That doesn't mean born in the 90s! That means you are like nine years old and collecting stickers in sticker books in the 90s! It means you used a rotary phone in the 90s!) 😂

Here's a beautiful ox I illustrated for my good pa

Bánh chưng is a traditional tết dish, made up

Bánh chưng is a traditional tết dish, made up of layers of glutinous rice, mung bean, fatty pork, boiled for hours.
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According to my dad, bánh chưng came about when a king couldn't decide which of his many sons should inherit the throne. So he came up with a cooking contest, with the son with the best dish being his successor.
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All the rich sons travels far to get exotic ingredients. The poorest son ended up staying home and made a dish using local ingredients. He made bánh chưng and said it represented the Earth, which his dad went apeshit over. He was crowned the winner AND king. The end!
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My folks make bánh chưng during this time of year in limited quantities, which I try to steal and hoard. We like to fry slices of it, but I didn't animate that part cuz I was already dying under the length of this baby. Enjoy!