Last night our Honor's class had the pleasure of listening to Hmong artist Seexeng Lee who came to speak to us. He began with an overview of art in general, and then went specifically into Hmong art and his personal story. He told us how Hmong art isn't meant to sit in a museum and have people simply look at it; it is meant to be used and to be functional. He told us about his journey to where he is now. His family wasn't accepting of his desire to be an artist, but he pursued it anyways with an immense amount of passion. A quote from his website says, "Many may say that living with the collision of two cultures is a burden but I find it a blessing in disguise." I think that this is a really neat view and it was interesting to see how he coped with his Hmong culture while adapting to life in America. I feel like his pieces are so beautiful in looks and in the passion that went into making them. He spoke about the evolution of Hmong art and how it has become more hybrid; mixing classic Hmong with American. One last quote that he left us with that I really liked was, "It is my job to make the invisible, visible."
We have had the privilege of getting to hear from so many wonderful speakers and last night was another great addition t our list. It was especially enjoyable to hear of Seexeng Lee's personal views and story since we have previously viewed his work in the convocation a few weeks ago as well as in the Center for Hmong Studies. It feels like a backstage pass when we get to learn the behind the scenes details. Having very little art experience myself, I really enjoy listening to artists speak. For me, it reopens my eyes to their work and helps me remember to widen my, usually narrow, perspective. I feel a little bad after learning about what the mural in the Buetow is, because though I haven't passed by it often, when I did I didn't pay that much attention to it. I think too often I take things like art for granted, because I am no artist myself, I sometimes forget all of the work and passion and thought that goes into a piece and Lee did a good job of helping remind of that.
Though I was very tired and mentally and physically drained last night, even though it was the first night back from break, to be honest I was not looking forward to another speaker at all. I am very happy to say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Lee speak. I don't know if it was his intention but he gave some good life advice. This has actually been true of almost all speakers, the more I listen to them the more I learn about myself. It makes me really excited now to learn more about my Norwegian background through our research paper. He spoke a student who said that he wished he was like him because his culture was "so cool!" and he said he told that student to dig a little deeper and they too would discover really great things about their culture. You should be proud and knowledgeable of where you came from and I can't wait to learn more about lovely Norway. Uff da!
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