What makes an artist interesting to an audience? Outside of the sheer visual beauty of an image, there is also the strong emotional reaction a work of art elicits. Artists are able to awaken a sense or a memory with patterns, shapes and colors.

Ethnic artists have an added caveat around their work. Art dealers are drawn to ethnic artists for their cultural identity and any insider look into their heritage.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tam Van Tran is an emerging American artist. His solo shows have appeared at galleries around the country for the past five years.

"I think there's a unique challenge for Asian American artists to integrate the experience of gliding through Asian and Western paradigms," says Tran. "Art buyers seek out unique cultural experiences that border on exoticism."

That exoticism is by no means obvious in Tran's work. But there is a unique message of two-sidedness in his work, an extra layer of something else underneath the surface.

Reflections on Departure
Tran was born in Kontum, Viet Nam. He grew up in a suburb outside of Ha Noi. When word spread that the Americans were leaving Viet Nam, his family plotted a plan to leave too.

His older sister who was 19 at the time was charged with taking Tran, then 8, and two other siblings across the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) to Sai Gon. At one point, Tran was separated from his sister. He was eventually found by his sister's boyfriend and reunited with his siblings at his uncle's house in
Sai Gon.

He and his siblings made their way to the island of Phu Quoc and eventually fled from Viet Nam a few days before the fall of Sai Gon. A U.S. cruiser took them to the island of Guam. They eventually landed at Camp Pendleton in Southern California. Tran's eldest brother and parents were left behind in Sai Gon.

The young Tran siblings found their way to Denver where they were raised by American sponsors. Years passed and Tran grew up to a young adult. At the age of 27, Tran was finally reunited with his parents 18 years after he fled Viet Nam as a young child.

"We went to the airport and picked them up. It was all very strange," reflects Tran.

As a young adult, Tran decided to go to art school. He made his way to New York where he studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. His family was not on board with the idea of him becoming an artist, let alone moving by himself to New York.

"My family heard stories about New York. They thought it was a dark city," recalls Tran.

But Tran was committed to going to New York to study art. He was the first of his siblings to get a post-high-school education and also the first to pursue a non-traditional career. This trend would repeat itself as the Tran siblings grew up.

Solitary Freedom
"My family wanted me to be more practical but now that they see that I can support myself through my artworks, they don't hassle me anymore," says Tran.

As a child, Tran had a keen interest in visual arts.

"I used to ask for snack allowances and then would go out and buy drawing supplies," says Tran.

Growing up in Viet Nam as a child, Tran remembers how hard his father had to work to feed his family.

"He was an elementary school teacher, a policeman, a fisherman... there was one point when he had five jobs just to support us," says Tran.

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