Artist Dang Ai Viet: I will stop painting when the last Vietnamese Heroic Mother passes away

One hot day in mid-August, a motorbike covered with red flags with yellow stars and a stainless steel box with the words 'Box containing paintings of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers and drawing paper' tied to the back was running gropingly through the streets of Da Nang.

For the past 15 years, artist Dang Ai Viet has traveled almost every corner of the country, visiting each family to paint portraits of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers.

The small, white-haired woman searched each house number and then went into an alley beside the railway tracks to find a heroic Vietnamese Mother, which she numbered 3,392. This was the number of paintings of heroic Vietnamese Mothers that she - the female artist Hero of Labor Dang Ai Viet (78 years old) has been searching and sketching for the past 15 years.

"Hey, I'm Vietnamese. Are you okay?" - the female artist spread her arms to hug the person. Vietnamese Heroic Mother 95 years old like a long lost child returning.

Seeing Mother's confusion with the word "she", the Vietnamese artist explained that calling her "she" is like calling her "older sister", because although Vietnamese Mothers are heroic, most of the Mothers are only 10-15 years older than her.

A meeting to record portraits of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers has always been started by Ms. Viet with the same ritual for the past 15 years: clasping her hands in front of her chest, sincerely praying "to ask for permission, to inform the souls of the martyrs to enter the house to draw pictures of the Mothers".

On the chair, the face of the frail old mother, covered with crow's feet of age and suffering, gradually appeared on the canvas. The female artist moved her brush and talked. She said that thanks to this, the Mothers were not "hunched, stiff, or tense" so that all the heroic spirit, beauty, and sacrifice of the Mothers appeared most brightly.

"There are mothers who sing and tell stories about joining the army and losing their children. There are mothers who, while telling funny stories, suddenly burst into tears because they miss each other. I always introduce myself: "I am a Vietnamese artist, but also a Viet Cong, a Party member who participated in the war. I will try my best to draw portraits of you and put them in the museum."

There, the Mothers are a part of history." Starting to draw portraits of Vietnamese Heroic Mothers in 2010, the artist's journey has now gone through 15 years and she said she will only stop when the last Vietnamese Heroic Mother passes away.

Despite her old age, Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Phu was still lucid and very “cooperative”. During an hour of sketching portraits together, they unexpectedly recognized each other when in 1973, Mother Phu was released from Con Dao and Dang Ai Viet was also present in the delegation of Southern cadres welcoming the political prisoners.

Sitting for nearly an hour painting, the artist's conversation with Vietnamese Heroic Mother Phan Thi Tung was like a slow-motion film about war memories.

Sitting for nearly an hour painting, the artist's conversation with Vietnamese Heroic Mother Phan Thi Tung was like a slow-motion film about war memories.

In her luggage, the female artist always keeps a photo of her husband, also a journalist, People's Artist - Worker Pham Khac.

"I drew you in here, now you're completely inside the painting, you can't run away anymore" - said the female artist.

The portraits of the Mothers were completed by Vietnamese artists and certified by local authorities.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/hoa-si-dang-ai-viet-toi-se-ngung-ve-khi-me-viet-nam-anh-hung-cuoi-cung-qua-doi-3374014.html