"... I escaped from Vietnam in a small wooden boat. Our boat was hit by a big storm, and thank God, we all survived. After spending about a year in the refugee camp of Galang Indonesia, I reunited with my family in the USA.

When I attended the University in Vietnam, my mayors were math and law. Later on in the US, I preferred to study other subjects, something different from my past majors. However I did not know what to study then. Our particular day, I stop by at art gallery in Los Gatos, a small and nice town in Northern California. I was like kid in a toy shop. My eye moved from one location to another constantly. I spent hours at that gallery.

My background was an army officer, a reporter, a journalist... but at last I know what I really want to be: I want to be an artist.

 I spent all my time, all my money and all my soul on my paintings. I went from being poor to poorest. But let me tell you, one of the happiest time in my life is the time I spent with my paintings.
Pastel was not my first choice of medium. I used

 water-based acrylic at my art class at West Wally College where I met my wonderful instructor- Mary Poster. In the winter the cold weather forced me to stay inside the library to paint. On one occasion, the librarian stopped and said to me, "Water is not allowed in here". So I decided to choose pastel and quickly adapted to this medium. Pastel become my favorite medium. I also discovered that there was relationship between fine art and math. For example, I started my first line sketching object by rectangle to limit the space I will draw and continue to draw simple rectangle to limit the detail' s space. I also used this method when I taught drawing classes. Just by using squares and circles, I was able to demonstrate to the student how to draw complicated rose. However, the most important technical of drawing is still proportion.

I won some national and local painting awards. My artworks were accepted by the PSNF Florida, PSA New York, DPS New Orleans, California, Kansas, Georgia...I was also interviewed by local Vietnamese media, local and national media, including Voice of America"

The Sand Paper
Pastel Society of North Florida
PO Box 5133 Fort Walton Beach, 
Florida 32549
Volume X Number 3. Dec. 1997
Featured Artist Ninh Dam