About Jessica-Kim Phuong Danh
I would be lying if I said I've always wanted to be an artist. Well, I did want to be an artist or a dancer when I was a kid, but that's no career for a first generation Vietnamese girl. Instead, I was strongly persuaded by my parents to choose a more practical path. I graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Marketing, a minor in Francophone Studies, and was apart of the fencing team for two NCAA Championships. I even got to start working in my field right out of college - awesome.
We won't play the game of what-ifs here. I'm grateful for everything in life, and if I weren't working for the company I'm with today, I wouldn't have had the chance to try SCAD Atlanta for a semester. That's what really sparked my love for drawing again.
It's an odd chapter in my life - my boss allowed me to work part-time hours while I pursued a degree in Game Development. Of course, you have to take fundamental courses and that's when I took some amazing classes in drawing and design. After that semester, I said "screw it" to the degree and took up my full-time position again. In my spare time, when I'm not training Wing Chun or lifting heavy things at the gym, I draw. I draw a lot.
UPDATE 2017: "Hey, Jessica - where's the art?!" Well, y'all, I'm back in school! I've been studying almost non-stop, but I've been getting some inspiration back for new work. Hope to post some soon!
About the Art
My art has been described as "painfully detailed." I suppose it does get painful sometimes when I look at a vast area of white space and realize I still have to color in all the tiny triangles just right. But I love it. You get lost in the detail, and for me, that's soothing.
The style, I've learned, is called zentangle. I enjoy applying it to wildlife, and am currently learning to apply it to landscape and human figures.
Materials: Pigma Micron pens, Copic Sketch Markers, Strathmore bristol board, and Strathmore heavy paper.
