Collage-Anagram Series, Spring 2005 (10 of 19 sets)

Not for sale.



Not available.




Not for sale.

I love graphic design. Logos, symbols, ambigrams, codes, and anagrams also interest me a great deal. The recent and popular novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, which deals with codes and symbols, captivated and inspired me. But the art works which displayed letters, shapes, and colors on the walls of the Downtown restaurant in Berkeley truly sparked in me an idea for these Anagram Series.

To me, anagrams are interesting because I can write the words backward or mix them up by using the same letters to form different words and meanings. Tam, mat in Vietnamese mean shower, eyes. Ete, ete in French mean summer, was. For my Anagram Project, I selected 18 common English words and 1 number. I picked number 19 as my last work in the series because it can be written as 19 or 91, and it can also be read upside down as 16 and 61.

After having decided on my words and number, I embarked on a tour around Berkeley in search of them. I spent much time at the Library's tables, and the City's newspaper racks. I finally found enough colorful letters and numbers to begin my work. I then spent many more hours of cutting, arranging, and gluing them to make my Anagram Series.

I hope that you enjoy viewing these Series as much as I have enjoyed making them.

Kmud & Odzbd


Clip Frame 12 x 16 in. with 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 opening
$50 each set (click on image to enlarge)


COMMENTS FOR ANAGRAM SERIES:

7/8/05
It was so cool to see all your artwork up on the walls on the first floor. I knew you were talented, but I didn't realize how talented.
Yvette G.
7/15/05
I very much admire your anagrams which I saw at the main library. I plan to attend your reception next Tuesday. Hope to meet up with you.
Mimi K.
7/20/05
I've enjoyed the exhibit so much than you for doing it.
Elizabeth O.
7/20/05
Your work and spirit is beautiful, and a great help to all of us at the library right now. Certainly a great help to me.
Pat M.
7/25/05
It's a GREAT exhibit. Thanks, Nga.
HERE, HERE!! I completely agree with Marge on this!!!
Marge S. , Kathy S.
8/2/05
Congratulations on your Anagram Series at the main BPL. George & I went to see it & it was GREAT! So much clever artwork. You should get it in a museum! Anyway, I hope you keep showing your creative work.
Stephanie M.
8/12/05
Your Anagram Exhibit by Trinh. I just popped in to browse. Discovered this amazing exhibit. Quiet. Surface simple. Curiously fragmented. Then fell in love w/"Pit/Tip." Such subtle, well casted detail. Multicultural casting. An entire world of human relationship before my eyes! Thank you so much!
A Library Patron
9/12/05
You are my herorine. Thanks for the art!!
Roya A.

Thank you everybody for your comments.
Trinh Tuyet Nga

Collage-War! Why? Series, Fall 2005-Winter 2006

My "War! Why?" series was inspired by the song, "War!" by Barret Strong, Norman Whitfield/Ewan Star, and also by recent demostrations in the U.S. against the war in Iraq. I came from Viet Nam, a country that suffered and was desvasted by so many wars. I feel that I should voice, and show my feelings about war in general, however trivial they are, through my art work.

For each black & white war picture, I collected several photographs from various books at the Berkeley Library, made copy and collaged them into one. Each word that I picked and put together represents the horrific of wars. I then scanned and printed it out. For the colored pictures, I collected them from National Geographic Magazines, post cards, and books at the library, then made colored copies. These are not for sale.




HATE - Palestine-Israel War.



CHAOS - Iraq-United States War.



GENOCIDE - Cambodia-Civil War.



BOMBS - Japan-United States War.




KILL - Viet Nam-United States War.



MURDER - China-Japan War.


Made in Viet Nam



Made in Viet Nam #2


"Made in Viet Nam" are the only two War collages that I did in 1994. I copied photographs from books for the background. I took pictures of my son's hands holding a paper folded gun, a branch rubber band sling shot, and a finger-sign-gun. (Shooting and fighting were games that my brothers, sisters, and neighborhood friends liked to play when we were little growing up in Viet Nam.) After that I cut them out, glue them on the background, and then colored photocopied the whole picture. The title "Made in Viet Nam" implies that the Vietnamese are nationalistic people to the core, and that is why we are still speaking Vietnamese today.

To me, the Earth is big and rich enough for all of us, so why fight and kill one another in the names of ideology, race, religion, power, greed, hatred, and jealousy?

May Love and Peace be with us, and long live the goodness of humankind.

This series is dedicated to Harvey Lyau, a friend, who is very supportive of my work.

Trinh Tuyet Nga


COMMENT:

Regarding your "War!Why?" series: of the 6 new works I felt that "genocide" describes the ridiculous and unreasonable side of war most poignantly. The smiling soldiers' faces contrasting the bare human skulls leaves me feeling that life is always so close to death. We live a brief moment in this world, our borrowed bodies serve as temporary vessels toward what means? certainly there are better things to living than the destruction of humanity.

Harvey Lyau

Collage-Slang Series, Fall 2005

Not for sale.


Sold.




Not for sale.







I have been working for Berkeley Public Library as a Library Aide for five years, during which time I work in Technical Service Department processing, and mending books. I also process lots of media, so I get my hands on plenty of discarded, yet colorful and beautiful music CD packaging that does not fit in the library's plastic boxes. Throughout the years, I've saved and saved these discarded boxes and finally, Eureka! I have eventually found a good, fun way to recycle them. Anagram Series was my first, and Slang is my second and most recent series. Being an immigrant myself, I created this series in memory of a Japanese student who came to the United States to study, and got killed by the police a few years ago because he did not understand the word "Freeze!" Even though freeze is not a slang, I had included it in the series because I thought it would be a helpful word for a recent immigrant to know.


Solid Pine Frame 10 x 10 in. with a 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 in. opening.
$25 each picture, or $45 a set of two. (Click on image to enlarge)

Drawing, Printing, Collage, and Mixed-Media 1982-2002