What a difference ten years can make. When I picked up my daughter from the orphanage; Danang, Vietnam was a sleepy coastal town. Vietnam was a a place of pristine beaches and a tourist industry in its infancy. As I stepped out of my cab in front of the hotel in March of 2009, Danang had become a unrecognizable city. Danang has grown up as much as my now eleven year old daughter. High rises are the norm, what’s left of the untouched beaches are slated to to soon be covered with high rise building complexes to rival Miami or Honolulu.
The laid back, underdeveloped Vietnam abounding with natural beauty and pervasive poverty is running to catch up with the development of it’s successful neighbors China and Thailand.
The price of prosperity seems to always be environmental destruction, this is the only thing humans have figured out so far. The good side of this is poverty is obviously way down, in fact the Vietnamese now adopt there own orphans. But just as obvious was wide spread environmental degradation and urban sprawl . Lets hope Vietnam does not have to sacrifice all its natural beauty to find prosperity, but from what I’ve just seen on my recent travels I’m not optimistic.
So what does this have to do with a painting of emerald hills and deep blue seas? I have painted the soul of Vietnam, the beauty of it’s land, people and culture. The one thing that did not change since my first visit is the kind, sweet nature of the Vietnamese people towards visitors. With all the breakneck development and it’s governments well known corruption, the collective soul of Vietnam is warm, friendly and accepting. The challenges and the beauty; this is what I choose to paint in my portrait of Vietnam.