Bikers
Acrylic, 2019
Hanoi, Vietnam
The traffic in Hanoi is famous for being chaotic and totally foreign to a Westerner. After acclimating, I learned that there was great harmony at all times on the road, despite a very relaxed set of traffic laws. One crossed the street anywhere, at any time, and the plethora of bikes and trucks would slow and gently swerve like a school of fish to grant one lateral passage. I saw little girls holding hands on their way to school, nonchalantly crossing rush hour traffic as their fellow Hanoians moved gently around them, granting them safe passage. It is a beautiful and exhilarating thing to witness! But the pollution from millions of motor-bikes, and Soviet-era diesel trucks, forced most of us to wear protective masks at all times on the roads. Only a generation before, Hanoi was a city of bicycles! Wishing to encourage both a greener future, and honor Hanoi’s rich history, I painted a portrait of Hanoians on bicycles instead of motorbikes. An artwork, a mural, can plant ideas in the minds of the youth like seeds, seemingly small at first. My hope is that these seeds grow into a greener Earth, and a greener Hanoi, for all people to enjoy.
