We caught up with the brilliant and insightful LYNX a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi LYNX, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
The last time I had this thought was when I was in the graduate art school. I was copying the both the Old Master’s paintings and the contemporary master artists. I try to convince myself that the act of painting and surrounding myself with artworks is what make me happy, but that wasn’t the case. I was trying to figure out what is the purpose of my life! Because there was no purpose and no direction to shoot for that is the reason why I am going in a circle and suffer so much. I destroyed all my paintings and all the idea of copying someone else, and trying to focus on creating what I REALLY like-This mean I could be a failure in life and that I won’t make any money. A few years after graduate school, I was outside in the dark sometimes up to 4am in the morning applying tiny pen marks on paper and canvas with a very loud and powerful electric drill. Apparently, I was poor and a failure. I have to get a few jobs to earn some money to apply for art shows, because its not easy for people to understand my work. My goal is bring world peace with my artwork, so I don’t mind the sleepless nights and rejection letters from galleries. I just know, if I able to discipline my mind and put in the work, one day I am able to make peace with myself. World Peace is not a big goal, it comes from the accumulation of small realizations within us and through that we can expand the peace to the people in our family and into society. I know many people who try to bring peace to other, but they cannot bring peace to their family. I carried this insight into my art concept, each pen mark is to recognize one’s misdeed, wrongdoing, and not being proper; and through daily training to find the solutions on how to improve and make it better.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is LYNX and I just go by that first name; and I am an Artist. My journey to become an artist is full of challenges and setbacks. You have heard many stories about people transform from “rag to riches” but my destiny is not that fortunate. I was not success with my work, I went through a divorce, and from my understanding, my parent doesn’t support what I am doing. Instead of indulging in negativity and feel sorry for my circumstances; I embrace challenges and suffering. I decided to use my creative process to review on how to improve situation, how to deal with setbacks, and how to transform negative mindset into something meaningful. It is not an easy process because every single day, someone or something try to bring me down, that is why I hold on to my core concept of discipline as a tool to transcend the art of making thing-into the art of transforming mentality. My principal is if the mind is transcended, then the artwork get uplifted. That is the reason why my artwork is hard for other to understand, because it is not about the surface, but about the ruthless battle between the false self and the true self within. To understand my work is very easy, just ask yourself, what am I going to appreciate today? Then our heart will connect, because I want to bring a different type of energy to people home; the energy of caring, loving, kindness, peace, positivity, blessing, protection, and the most important thing, the energy to overcome oneself! To be a better self each day, not each day we get more and more complaining and blaming, this type of energy only cause other and oneself to suffer more. I hope when you see my work, you can sense the settledness, then my efforts serve its purpose. You can be a guest in my journey visit me on my Instagram page: Lynxnguyen3356 or my website: lynx2art.com
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
We are all human being, we all going through ups and downs. I am a human being. and artist is a title I give myself to identify the job that I do. The reason I said it this way is because, sometimes I use my situation as an excuse to avoid putting more efforts. For example, I might be conceived and blocked; because I am an Asian Artist, I don’t get much support, therefore, I just blaming society all day long and not do a thing about it. Versus another mentality could be, because I am an Asian Artist, how can I put more efforts to be seen and what can I contribute to society for the better. There are many types of Artist, one type could be making works strictly for the interior design and decorate a house based on the current trend and the process is straight forward, very systematic. Second type of Artist is making work based on passion, what one’s like, like painting still life, ocean, people, and vacation experiences. The third type of artist is making work based on some concepts, and everything they do is to describe that concepts. The fourth type of Artist is making work to address the current issues in society. The fifth type of Artist, is the one who using art as a mean to better improve themself mentally. The six type of Artist is the one who using art to uplift humanity. Understand these types of Artist will help you to understand why I do thing that I do. It is hard to describe my work using words, because it is not about the physical by about the mental.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The way I connect to the audience on social media is through sincerity and transparent. I try to show my determination, failures, persistence, daily attempts to figure out how to do things better. discipline, and keep on going. It is a slow building process to get more audience to view my work, and I am content with that. Its motivate me to make better work, and learn to connect with my audience. My advices for those who just starting out on social media is to put more efforts building an inventory. Put more efforts in making the work. The more you do, the more you will discover what you like and what you don’t like. Most importantly, doing something that is meaningful and beneficial to humanity. Even if our work is misunderstood, at the end of the day, you will be internally happy, because you sacrifice your happiness for other’s benefit. This route is not popular, but the consequences are long term happiness. I try to present my social media exactly like my daily life. This way, when I talk about my artwork it connects easier with people.
Contact Info:
- Website: lynx2art.com
- Instagram: lynxnguyen3356
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/linhhn1
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynx-nguyen-b70771a0/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnw3_3s541ygd-5UJKp1HRg
Image Credits
The images are taken by Terrell Clark and Stephanie Eley
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