18 3 / 2010
80 Year Old ‘Visionary’ Artist In Vietnam
People line up early in morning in hopes for this very Budhaesque 80 year old man with big floppy earlobes to paint them a picture. Not just any picture. Supposedly, he has this gift for seeing things about people. He’ll take one good look at a person’s face, see a vision, and starts painting beautiful brush style works. Then he’ll interpret the meaning of the art to you and explain how the art work should be taken as reminder and advice to better yourself or situation if needed or simply a piece for good luck.
First person: after drawing, he asks her point blank, why didn’t she pay back her loan. Embarrased, she doesn’t answer. He asks her again, did she borrow money from someone. Embarrassed but she finally acknowledges. He then continues on about having good character (all represented in art work).
Second person: after drawing, points to 3 chinese calligraphy words he written… words are on 3 different character traits… goes on to tell her through her current actions, she only has 2 of 3 but missing the 1 is real bad.
Third person: after drawing, basically lectures her that she shouldn’t always think about money, and money isn’t everything. Not pretty.
Forth person: after drawing, finally, he says something all positive about some one, and he will have a good success in the business/work he’s currently in.
You can see the pattern here, and believe or not believe, he wasn’t out to sugar coat. But he wasn’t out to ridicule or be mean either. He had a very calm demeanor and seemed to genuinely wanted these people to be better. All the people also acknowledge that he was right.
At the same time, it sort of made it a bit intimidating to want to have him do mine. Especially since business stuff is only on my mind. Who wants to be told by a wise old man that they suck at being a human being? But hey ego aside, I was there for dope artwork, so I had to have one.
Without telling anything about my birth year sign or anything about me other than I’m American… he starts to draw. In the video, you’ll see him paint first Guan Yu, the Taoist Chinese General God, 2 birds male and female to represent balance (need further explanation on that), a dragon. He had said that my ancestors (taoist beliefs) and that general deity was over looking and protecting me. Crazy part is even though I’m agnostic, I do have the statue of the general at my place (we thought he looked bad ass), and when I have to do those dire emergency preys (worst can happen with preying is nothing happens)… it’s to him. I also happen to be year of the dragon also. So the imagery was very Me. He also wrote in english, “Everything will be alright” on the painting… no matter how chaotic things may seem now, everything will be alright. And that was the big relief answer that I was looking for. That and the fact he felt the vibe of a good person came from me.
*He doesn’t charge for his artwork, if you feel like giving him money, then you give. If not, it’s okay. He never asks.
