Art from the Heart

Before Vy Van was a finance and accounting major at the C. T. Bauer College of Business, she was capturing the beauty of the world around her with a brush and a canvas. 

From pastel ocean landscapes to portraits of her beloved family members, Van paints as a form of self-expression and love, she said.  

Her passion for art started when she was a young girl in a small town in Vietnam. Although she didn’t have the finances or resources to build up her hobby at the time, she worked with what she had and continued to hone her craft.  

When she first moved to the United States, she was very shy, she said. It was difficult moving to a new country and learning a new language, she added. Art was a vessel she used to connect with the culture of her environment and make new friends.  

“It helped me get out of my comfort zone,” Van said.  

Additionally, Van helped her family manage their business, which encouraged her in learning English and navigate the world with more confidence. By watching her mother manage the finances of their business, Van said that she learned at an early age that nearly everything had a monetary value, even her art.  

She started selling her art at schools, and the friends she made supported her by buying them. With the money she earned, she bought more colors and continued to improve her artistic abilities.  

Her high school teachers encouraged her to submit her work in art competitions, and her mother drove her to every event. Invigorated by the support she received from her friends, family and loved ones, Van would go on to win said art competitions at her high school and the Houston Rodeo.  

Van primarily uses oil paints and said that she enjoys painting her surroundings. Although she draws inspiration from her environment, she still adds her own creative twist when she paints it on the canvas.  

One of her most recent art pieces is of an ocean landscape that is painted with soft pastels. The lightness of the scene reflects a dream-like quality. Silhouettes of seagulls are carried by the ocean breeze, and a boat coasts along the waves. In this painting, Van describes herself as the boat.  

“Everything is in motion,” she said. “I imagine the ocean is moving, and the boat just keeps going and going and going. It never stops.”  

Van realized as she got older that her talents extended beyond painting beautiful pictures. Her creativity mixed her with her experience in helping her family’s business lent themselves to her future career in finance and accounting.  

She said that art will always be a passion of hers, but she also can’t deny herself the skill she has for numbers and analytical thinking. Others might not understand why she made the switch, she said, but the way she sees it, there is creativity in every aspect of our lives — including business.  

“Everything you do in your life requires creativity,” she said. “If you don’t have that, you can’t do anything.”  

If you were to ask Van who inspires her the most, she would answer, “Me.”  

“I have to remind myself to just keep going, keep moving forward,” she said. “I have the support of my friends and family, but if you don’t do it, who else will?”