Vietnamese artist paints with his mouth in Oscar-nominated film

That is Le Minh Chau (born in 1991) - a painter with a disability due to Agent Orange, has a talent for painting with his mouth and has won many awards in painting competitions nationwide.

Young artist Le Minh Chau - the will to overcome himself

Chau is known to more people through the 34-minute film titled “Chau, Beyond the Lines” directed by Courtney N Marsh. The film revolves around the willpower of Agent Orange victim Le Minh Chau and was nominated for the 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary.

The Will of a Boy Deformed by Agent Orange

We went to the gallery of artist Le Minh Chau on Le Hong Phong Street (District 10 - Ho Chi Minh City). It is called a gallery but it is just a room less than 20m2. Chau rents the room for 5 million/month to rest, live and display his works.

My first impression was that Chau's paintings were very realistic and of all genres, from portraits, landscapes, abstract paintings... And Chau used her mouth to draw all of them.

A corner of the exhibition of works at Le Minh Chau gallery.

Nguyen Minh Chau (1991) was born into a poor family in Trang Bom (Dong Nai). Chau is the only child (of 4 siblings) with a congenital disability due to the effects of Agent Orange from his parents (Chau's parents were infected with dioxin during the resistance war against the US to save the country).

Because her family was poor, Chau was sent to Hoa Binh Children's Village, Tu Du Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) for care and education when she was young. When Chau was 9 years old and in first grade, her whole class was taught to draw lacquer paintings on the classroom wall by a teacher named Linh who volunteered to teach her. Chau said, "At that time, Chau was fascinated by the colors that Ms. Linh mixed." Seeing the passion of disadvantaged children, Ms. Linh asked to open a free drawing class for children with a talent for painting like Chau at Hoa Binh Village.

Chau's class was initially guided by teacher Linh by drawing with felt-tip pens and coloring on existing models. After a while, teacher Linh discovered that Chau had a talent for painting. She always tutored and encouraged Chau to overcome all difficulties related to her disability to pursue her dream of becoming a professional painter.

In addition to the cultural lessons in class, Chau always sat alone, diligently practicing drawing in the collective room of Hoa Binh Village. But Chau's weak hands could only draw for 10-20 minutes before falling apart. With both passion and fear of losing ideas, Chau decided to use her mouth to practice drawing. "Using your hands to hold a brush only requires moving your arms, but using your mouth to hold a brush to draw requires the movement of your whole body. At first, practicing drawing with your mouth, your whole body was always in pain and tired, especially your teeth, mouth muscles and neck were always sore, you couldn't eat or drink" - Chau said.

With the dream of becoming an artist, Chau still spends 5-6 hours every day diligently practicing drawing with his mouth. Over the years, Chau's mouth drawings gradually become more sophisticated.

The painting "Autumn at Hoan Kiem Lake" was painted by Chau in October 2015.

Initial results

“My childhood days in Hoa Binh Village were a time when Chau had many happy and unforgettable memories,” Chau confided. But Chau wanted her passion for painting to not stop at just a dream, so when she turned 18, Chau asked her foster mothers in Hoa Binh Village to let her go out into society to find more opportunities to learn about painting.

First, Chau went to art galleries in Ho Chi Minh City to learn painting and gain new talents from famous painters. And all of Chau's galleries left a good impression of a young man who overcame adversity to live with his passion for painting.

When his career was stable and he could earn a living for himself, Chau began his journey with the idea of ​​opening an art gallery to display and sell his works. Chau said, "The first painting Chau drew of the Northern countryside landscape with a banyan tree, a well, and a communal house yard was bought by a foreigner for 3,000,000 VND. That was the result, the first happiness in life and a great encouragement for Chau to continue writing his dream."

With the desire and “life is not waiting” as Chau confided, the young artist knows how to overcome all adversities and difficulties in life to reach out to the ocean. Chau participated in the “Green Strokes” contest, then the “War Remnants Museum” contest and many other contests and won prizes. And recently, in the “Victory over Pain” contest, Chau won the consolation prize.

For Le Minh Chau - painting is his greatest passion.

Along with the development of his gallery, the artist has diligently studied foreign languages ​​and now Chau speaks two languages ​​fluently: English and Japanese. Chau believes that “learning foreign languages ​​helps Chau fully understand the ideas of foreign customers when they place orders with him. Currently, Chau’s gallery has a fairly stable number of customers from England, France, Japan…”

When talking about her future plans, Chau confided, “Chau wants to hold an exhibition of her paintings, and the money from the exhibition will be donated to the Peace House, the place that has given her the life she has now, as a thank you.”

According to infonet