By Virginia Brown

Last fall, Lucy Phung took the trip of a lifetime.

In September, the visual artist and founder of ALUPH Studio traveled to Vietnam for the first time to explore her family heritage.

The Charlotte native funded the trip through the Arts & Science Council’s Emerging Creator Fellowship, which provides investments in early-career creatives who want to establish their creative practice in Mecklenburg County.

“Although I absolutely love doing commissions, I felt a need to create more original pieces that carry deeper meaning and genuinely represent who I am,” she said. “To achieve this, I needed to explore my cultural heritage and the aspects of myself that form the core of my identity but still largely felt like a mystery.”

Phung’s parents were from Vietnam, and she grew up with a hybrid of influences.

“Living in North Carolina my entire life, I’ve always felt a disconnect from my heritage,” she said. “Besides family, I didn’t have many Asian Americans in my life, and I spent much of my adolescence feeling out of place among my American peers.”

To better understand herself and advance her art, Phung needed to venture to Vietnam.

Phung’s art centers on commissioned paintings and murals for businesses and private collectors.

“I pride myself in being able to capture the subtleties of depth and emotion in facial expressions,” she said. “I carry that approach into my personal works, which are a mashup of illustration and realism and a balance of softness and strength with touches of nostalgia, depth, and emotion, based on my life experiences.”

At 31, Phung has painted murals all over the world, from South Carolina to California and Thailand. In Charlotte, her work can be found in the Charlotte Museum of History, QC Pour House and Moji Teahouse.

Now, she can add Vietnam to that list.

A Meaningful Pilgrimage

Phung’s family came to the U.S. as refugees during the Vietnam War. Although the time was filled with trauma, Phung’s grandmother loved to reminisce about her home country.

“In her stories, Vietnam seemed like a magical place,” she said. “She always talked about bringing me one day so I could experience it for myself.”

In 2020, before they could make that reality, Phung’s grandmother passed away.

“Making the pilgrimage to Vietnam felt like a way of honoring her, while getting in touch with my roots,” Phung said.

After pursuing her art full time in 2021, Phung was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of Charlotte is Creative’s Creative Entrepreneurs Initiative, which provided business training and funding for her debut pop-up art exhibition.

“They showed me that there are resources available and that success is usually a team effort.”

That led her to apply for ASC’s Emerging Creators Fellowship, which awarded her $10,000 for her artistic journey.

While in Vietnam, she visited Saigon, where her father is from, plus temples, the Imperial City, the islands of Ha Long Bay, beaches, historic old towns, night markets and more. She sought out local art, crafts, cuisine and architecture.

“These cultural expressions are the most accurate representations of a society,” she said.

“I no longer have family in Vietnam, but the people I had the pleasure of meeting welcomed me like family,” she said. “I didn’t want my visit to be completely self-indulgent so another goal I had with the grant was to paint a mural in Vietnam.”

She actually painted two: One, a collaboration with Alex DeLarge at Bamboo Villa & Spa in An Bang Beach, and another at The Hangout Tattoo Studio in Ha Noi.

“The community was so well received of our craft and we quickly developed a special friendship with the locals and expats,” she said. 

Though she left behind physical works of art, the personal understanding she took home with her was less tangible.

She was particularly moved while visiting a POW museum near her mother’s native region.

“They illustrated in vivid detail how her city was destroyed by bombs and gunfire, and how the community came together to dig trenches, how women picked up arms to fight back, and children wove hats to protect themselves from shrapnel,” she said. “It was heartbreaking but also eye opening seeing the Vietnam War through that lens versus from the American perspective that I was taught.”

The experience helped her more deeply appreciate the sacrifices her family made when they fled to the U.S. 

Last March, Phung returned to Vietnam to participate in a mural festival and participated in her first international gallery exhibition. Two of the Vietnamese-themed paintings she created as a result of her ASC grant were displayed at the Da Nang Fine Arts Museum.

“These paintings are meant to highlight the complexities of human experience and the beauty and hardship of clashing cultures, bringing insight and healing to the ones who need it,” she said.

This time, her father joined her.

“That was a big deal, because he had always disapproved of art as a career choice,” she said. “His immigrant mindset favored job stability and rejected art … but he stood by my side and, for the first time, watched me paint a mural.

“I believe in my art and the power it holds, and I want to do everything I can to keep sharing my art with the world,” she said. “I am extremely grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ASC granted me. It changed my life and has given me a more profound sense of purpose to bring forth in my art.”