Honoka‘a Artist Receives Award

A Honoka‘a artist was recently honored by the The Jerry Goldstein Foundation.

Jerry’s Artarama 50th Anniversary Artist Merit & Achievement Awards is given to 100 hundred artists each year and Honoka‘a Artist Thu Nguyen was selected for an award this year for her submission of Trade Wind Day.

This painting is part of her “Amelie-An Series”.

“Amelie-An was born in Can Tho, South Vietnam in February 2008 under a very dim star,” Nguyen said. “She was abandoned as an infant due to her medical problems which left her disfigured and mentally retarded. I adopted her December of 2008 and fell in love with Amelie-An the moment I first held her in my arms. She smiled at me and I just knew we were meant to be together. The first painting I did was to celebrate the transformation of her appearance after her first surgery. I had not intended to do anymore paintings but I found myself being obsessed with capturing her fleeting emotions. When I paint her it feels like a way to show a uniquely personal side of her that is often hidden by her disabilities.”