When Warner Bros. Background Painter Chi Ngô was in high school, she moved from Vietnam to the U.S. The stark differences between the two cultures made the transition jarring, and she sought ways to cope with the change. Today, one way she keeps from being homesick for her birth country is through her personal art.
She loves trying new approaches to illustration, and in her Vietnam-inspired work Reading Garden, she used textured brushstrokes in Photoshop to mimic a hand-painted look and to show variation in the plants and flowers. Regarding the composition, Ngô says that it “creates the feeling of voyeurism, as if the viewer stumbles upon a beautiful lady reading in silence in the middle of the garden.” The addition of dappled light and shadows enhances the sense of serenity.
Ngô also wanted to share the beauty of the áo dài, Vietnam’s iconic national garment. “I love the shape and silhouette of the áo dài,” she says. “If you happen to walk into an áo dài tailor shop, the amount of colors, textures, and embroidery details on the fabrics are so marvelous and most inspiring!”
Ngô hopes to one day unite her personal and professional art. “So far we have seen more and more representation of East Asian culture in mainstream media,” she says, “but I feel like Southeast Asia as a whole is still a mystery to a lot of people. Showing Vietnamese culture through my lens as a first generation [artist] is important to me. [It’s] a way for me to connect with Vietnamese Americans, and to encourage more inclusivity and diversity in animation.”
