“Keep your dream, nurture it, you were born to be yourself.”
— Thu

When we visited Thu in Sapa, Vietnam, her studio, once a bar, felt alive with stories, textures, and color. Our conversation flowed naturally, moving between memory, culture, and the ways she expresses herself through painting.

Thu’s work is rooted in storytelling, inspired by the fairy tales her grandmother told her as a child. Each painting unfolds like a tale, layer by layer, reflecting both personal memory and collective tradition. Having lived in Sapa for nearly two years, she draws deep inspiration from the culture around her, especially the Hmong women, whose resilience, rituals, and spirit shape her art. Using ethnic patterns and fabrics, she incorporates these traditions directly into her work, creating a bridge between history, identity, and her own voice.

Thu is full of energy and self-expression.

“People usually assume that I am a calm, quiet person, but actually I am very expressive. I paint to show myself to the world.”

Her work becomes an extension of that expressive self, a conversation with both the past and the present, the personal and the collective.

What follows is a conversation about identity, culture, and how place, memory, and tradition continue to guide her practice.