My mother is simply amazing. She is indecisive, quiet but loud, and knows a lot about sales; the one thing my mother is not is an artist. Dr. Thuy Le came to the USA at age 13. She did not speak any English and was alone, but she poured her heart into art. It was who she wanted to be. She won many art shows and was in a few galleries, but was told by her father that she would not make any money and that it was a frivolous idea that she could support herself through painting.
My name is Katlyn Le Leal, and I was raised by two organic chemists for parents that both wanted to be artists. My dad wanted to be an architect, and my mother a painter. Throughout my life, I have always been surrounded by art. I love it so much. it can move you, shake you, invite you, or even confuse you so much that you feel the need to write a term paper in high school about the color red. Although I was raised with art I was not really encouraged to do it. I was always told I should be a doctor or a lawyer so I could make a lot of money and be happy, and for the longest time, I thought that’s all my parents wanted. . . but it is not. My parents wanted me to do something I loved because they had to settle for practicality over their dreams. My mother stopped painting and regrets her decision every day. I can see it in the doodles in the margins of her papers, and in the old charcoal drawings, I found of my father and of me. She gave up her dream, but let me have mine.
This piece is for everyone who dreams. Through the lab coat and the artist smock, this piece represents the things my mother has given up in order for me to have, and that together with our dreams can become a reality.
We stand here for the dreamers, the lovers, the believers, for the people who gave up long ago because they thought their dreams were impractical or far-fetched. You can do it. You can do anything.
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