Fragments

Author/Artist Name

Vuanh Pham, Murray State UniversityFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Fall 11-21-2025

Artist Statement

My work draws on animals, birds, and, most recently, flora as symbolic vessels through which the human experience can unfold. By placing our intricate emotional capacity into the bodies of creatures and plants, I create a space where the complexities of being human can be observed from an outside perspective from my own. These forms allow me to explore the intensity of emotional growth—its highs that feel like flight, its lows that demand shedding, retreating, or transforming.

Animals and birds become stand-ins for our instinctive selves: the parts of us that react, protect, yearn, and adapt. Their movements and postures mirror what it means to navigate vulnerability, strength, isolation, and connection. With the introduction of flora, I extend this metaphor into the cyclical nature of growth—how we root, bloom, wilt, and regenerate. Plants offer a quieter language for change, one that emphasizes endurance, seasonality, and the unseen processes that shape who we become.

Through this interwoven imagery, I hope to reveal an emotional truth that words often struggle to hold. My work is ultimately a study of humanity through the lens of the natural world—an invitation to see ourselves not as separate from it, but as evolving beings shaped by the same forces of tension, beauty, and renewal.

Advisor/Mentor

Rebecca Williams; April Webb; Lu Colby

Description

Charcoal and Color Pencil on mixed media paper, glued to sheets of black paper, mattered and framed. 22” inch x 30” inch each

Photo Credit

Lu Colby, 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

Pham, Vuanh, "Fragments" (2025). B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499). 80.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/80