Budding visual artist's work drawing praise

For as long as she can remember, Tran has had an interest in art, but an undergraduate art class made it clear to her that this was a career she had to pursue.

“Ever since then, I knew that this is what I wanted to do,” Tran said.

Although she has tried her hand at a number of different media, visual art remains her passion, and she has incorporated it into most of her current projects.

“My primary medium, I would say, is lens-based,” Tran said. “I do video work and photography.”

Tran recently had the opportunity to exhibit two of her collaborative works at Houston’s Extremely Shorts Film Festival, an event where, true to its name, participants create short films from a variety of genres. The festival is held in conjunction with the Aurora Picture Show.

“The films that made it into the festival were films that were dealing with biculturalism and biraciality and how it’s being dealt with personally and in today’s culture,” Tran said.

This was the second time that Tran had shown films she had worked on at the festival, and she received a second-place prize for her entry, in addition to having it shown on one of Houston’s public-access stations.

Tran is in her first year of graduate school at Southern Methodist University, and in addition to her film work, she has also drawn inspiration for other projects from events in her life.

“I have been working on a lot of video installations that were made in response to thoughts stemming from my grandfather’s passing this past January,” Tran said. “They’re mostly about the genealogy of culture, things that are passed on from one to another, and things that we go through in one lifespan and beyond.”

Tran hopes her successes so far, in addition to the skills she learns as a graduate student, will be a stepping stone to a long-lasting career in the field.

“I’m pretty open at the moment, but ideally, I would like to be able to support myself as an exhibiting artist who is able to work just creating things,” Tran said. “I also have a love for the art institutions and the museums and would love to get into that work.”

About Melissa Tran
Age: 23
Occupation: Graduate student/artist
Community Connection: Lives in Cypress
Fast Fact: Participated in 2012 FotoFest Biennial

Chris Marshall is a freelance writer. He can be reached at neighborhoods@chron.com.