We recently connected with Kelly Lenh and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

When I was 18, I went on my first international trip as an American-born with my family to Vietnam. My mom hadn’t been back in her home country in about 20 years. We both learned a lot about how we want to live our life going forward through this trip. I recorded the whole trip and I never did anything with the footage until 2022, when I created “Tóc Nửa Nâu Nửa Bạc (Half Brown Half White Hair)” For me, this project is meaningful in a multitude of ways. I knew I wanted to create a piece of art that was truly special because this time in my life was special for the mere fact I was 22 years old. My mom had me when she was 22 years old. She was barely starting her adult life in a completely new country with a newborn baby in tow. As a tribute to my mom, Tóc Nửa Nâu Nửa Bạc is about appreciating the memories we had on our first trip to our home country of Vietnam and our wishes for the future.

Memories can be fickle, inaccurate, and ephemeral. But when you document them, some of that recollection comes back to you, although a bit hazy, or altered due to time. I convey these aspects of life through the materials I chose to use and how I displayed the piece. The paper stars contain our written wishes, pink for me, and red for my mom, which we folded together at 11PM at night when it was probably a better idea to sleep, but we enjoyed our bonding time. This harkens back to when my mother and I used to fold paper stars for fun when I was around 6 years old. I took those stars and encased them in resin so that they could be forever preserved in time. I went through a month’s worth of filming to cut into an eight minute video, telling a story of the little moments I treasured, and how our time on this world is fleeting. Both my and my mother’s narration of those preserved wishes are spliced together with the Vietnam footage. The video is projected through the resin, artifacted through the lens of our imperfect mind. For those curious to experience the culmination, I have a video recording of the artwork in action on my YouTube channel. Suffice to say, it was important to me that this project was a collaboration between my mother and I. Soon after its completion, I installed this artwork in our house and hosted a private showing for her. It seemed my message got across to her as after the video ended, she pulled me into a hug as she wept on my shoulders. That was all I needed to know I made her proud.

Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello folks! I’m Kelly Lenh, a Vietnamese-American LA based illustrator and fine artist. whose work spans across many mediums within painting. During my childhood, my family moved often but always came back to the Greater LA region, specifically the San Gabriel Valley. I’m grateful to be attending ArtCenter College of Art and Design in Pasadena, CA, and am expected to graduate in Fall 2024 with a BFA in Illustration, specializing in Fine Art Painting. I work primarily in mediums such as watercolor, gouache, acrylic gouache, and color pencils, occasionally dabbling in oil and resin. I’m known for my blending of experimental methods within fine art and illustration, with a focus in paintings expressing mental health, the human condition, and portraying the female form with a fantastical fusion of tactile and surreal elements.

I pride myself in being an explorer of the unconventional. When I was a kid, I didn’t believe galleries held a space for the type of art I was interested in: paintings of pretty, anime-style ladies. After seeing a few examples of that being disproved, I believe I will forge that path for myself. Alongside embracing the juvenile, I also embrace the mature, such as shedding light to vulnerability and our mental health crisis. Recently, I produced a series where I infused the poetry writing process and painting process together to talk about the hurdle many creatives face: burnout and the spiral it can lead down into.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had the opportunity to start my career while I was in community college, a few years fresh from graduating high school. By that time, I participated in my first group gallery show and was receiving inquiries about selling my artwork and commission services. I was growing rapidly on Instagram, as videos about my process reached around 20k-100k views. Clear signs of an art career, ready to take off.

All this attention, but inside, something was missing, lacking. I felt my art and creativity was stagnant. I didn’t feel ready or proven to myself. “It was luck,” the inner critic lamented. “You’re not doing enough,” the critic further bludgeoned. I took a gap year to problem solve this internal state and also due to Covid forcing classes to be held online which academically, I do not thrive in. After the gap year, I ended up attending ArtCenter to further hone my skills, broaden my mindset, and meet other interesting creatives. The same problems occurred just in a different environment with increased pressure. I questioned whether it was selfish and foolhardy of me to pursue an artistic career and that I’d be better off choosing the path Fear was craning my neck towards.

One cannot keep trudging along, expecting the same problems to fix themselves with more hard work, What it takes is awareness about your inner workings, even your greatest demons, The common eye may remark that my technical skills were enough, but my creative soul needed proper nurturing, not militaristic commandeering. Later, with the help of a therapist, I came to realize I was going through burnout and depression. It’s still a work in progress but I’m a lot happier with my life than before. If I continued on as if everything was normal, I imagine I’d be objectively successful but subjectively miserable.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

It was my first time receiving an artistic opportunity outside of teachers or classmates. In my senior year of high school, I was referred to a client in need of a business card design. Mind you, I had never designed a business card before nor did I have any semblance of digital program knowledge. However, my young spirit was excited to learn through the job. That meant I was gearing myself up to learn what I could about standard freelance business practices, other business card designs within my client’s field, setting up a payment method, and deciding on a price to charge. The client had a tight turnaround of only a couple days. In the end, I negotiated myself out of a minimum wage rate, to half the amount.

In short, the whole job was riddled with mistakes that I look back up on, wincing. But I really did my best for my client, communicating with her actively, despite my limitations. A lesson I learned in hindsight is how important having a proper mentor is and how it’s okay to ask for help. Yes, I may have accomplished a job all by myself from start to finish using my creativity and search engine skills. However, if at my fledgling state I had received some pointed guidance, I would have handled the situation completely differently and held myself up to a higher esteem. Anybody from my art teachers to artists I admired online, if I had reached out, I may have been thrown a lifebuoy to help me wade through rough waters. There’s also a comprehensive guide to pricing for any type of visual creative called the “Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.” It’s essentially a compilation of industry standard average pricing that gets updated every year. Many young artists just need to be nurtured with encouragement and well-placed advice in order to grow into their creative self. For those wishing to nurture one’s creativity in a course format with tasks and light reading, I would recommend Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way.” I would have liked to read this book a couple years earlier before I burned out but it’s great for building a healthy mindset towards a long-lasting creative life.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://kellylenh.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellylenh/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-lenh-b33192146/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellylenh
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5G-u_WvsCK5-KO1iuJEMWw