Artist Dang Ai Viet and the journey of portraying more than 3,000 heroic Vietnamese mothers

Artist Dang Ai Viet was born and raised in Cai Lay Town, Tien Giang Province. At the age of 15, from a group of laborers in Tien Giang, she was selected to attend a painting training class to serve the revolution in propaganda work. However, her life was not only associated with the brush and the palette.

During the years of resistance, she illustrated for the Women's Liberation newspaper, fought with a gun, worked as a nurse, transported rice, and joined the guerrilla team in Trang Bang, Tay Ninh.

The war ended, and many of her comrades remained on the battlefield. With endless grief and gratitude, she silently promised to use her talent and strength to repay the debt of gratitude to those who had fallen so that she could live.

For that reason, Journey of Time was created by artist Dang Ai Viet with the wish to travel across the country, using his drawings to depict portraits of all the remaining heroic Vietnamese Mothers.

Few people know that the artist had been dreaming of this unimaginable journey since she was still teaching at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts. But because of her own oath, she could not ignore her responsibility as a teacher and the right to care for her children; so she hid her worries, secretly nurturing her dream, waiting for the day when she could devote herself wholeheartedly.

Artist Dang Ai Viet’s journey was not one of instant inspiration. Up to now, the journey has lasted 15 years, more than 3,200 mothers have had their portraits painted by her, 63 provinces and cities have seen her footprints, regardless of the sun, rain, storms, floods, forest fog, mountain winds…

During 15 years of traveling, sometimes she went through winding mountain passes, sometimes through deep ravines, sometimes through old forests or struggled on muddy, deserted roads...

At night, she looked for a motel along the way. Wherever she went, the artist used her monthly pension to pay for the motel, buy drinks, and sometimes cook herself a meal. But not everywhere had a place for her to rest. There were deserted countrysides, and when she couldn’t get out of the forest, she set up a tent in the middle of the forest, just like the old days.

In mid-February, artist Dang Ai Viet traveled down to Duyen Hai town, Tra Vinh province. From Ho Chi Minh City, we followed her, waiting for a complete journey.

After a quick conversation, on the only road through the eucalyptus trees, the commune official led the three of us to the house of Nguyen Thi Mai's mother (93 years old) in Cay Da hamlet, Hiep Thanh commune, Tra Vinh province.

In a simple house of love hidden under the coconut trees, the children of the family welcomed us with joy, just like the moment of welcoming a long-lost relative.

After a few friendly introductions, artist Dang Ai Viet asked his family's permission, lifted the curtain in front of the small room, hugged his mother who had been bedridden for more than 10 years due to old age and poor health, and gently held her mother's thin hands.

Before painting her mother, she lit incense and silently prayed to the martyrs. She did not know whether she had ever met her comrades, who were her mothers’ sons and husbands, during those years of fierce fighting, but her brushstrokes were still filled with longing and love; her tears still welled up when she heard her mother’s family tell stories about those days of war.

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And until I saw and touched the portrait with my own eyes, I could truly feel the soul of the painting with my mother's eyes, depicted with great sadness but not at all pathetic - a calm gaze but also encapsulating all the hardships of life, just as the artist once said: "What I paint is not the faces of the mothers but their souls."

Mother Nguyen Thi Mai was the first mother I met on the trip, but for artist Dang Ai Viet, she was just one of more than 3,200 mothers she visited and painted.

During those 15 years, there must have been meetings and stories that she could never forget, but the artist would never dare to call them the most unforgettable meetings of her life. Because she has no right to compare or feel the pain of any mother greater than any other. There are mothers who are still waiting for their children’s bodies to return. There are mothers who silently worship their children, but on the altar there is not even a complete photo of them.

Artist Dang Ai Viet often calls her journey a cruel race. Cruel because the time mothers have in this world is very short, and we don't know when they will leave.

It is cruel that even at the age of 78, she can clearly feel the footsteps of time imprinting on her - when the frost has stained half of her hair, when her memory begins to fade. She does not know when she will stop, nor where the final stop of her life will be...

Perhaps for her, this journey was a cruel race, but for me, it was an extremely beautiful and extraordinary journey. Beautiful because of the priceless things she brought to life and to people; extraordinary because of the unimaginable challenges she overcame: dense forests, deep mountains, drizzle, north wind…

While diligently wiping her palette, artist Ai Viet quickly waved her hand when I called it an extraordinary journey. "No! I'm not extraordinary, I'm just like everyone else. One hundred and three sets of clothes, broken rice on the sidewalk, early morning coffee, occasionally a can of beer... I'm not more extraordinary than anyone else," she said. But perhaps it's the way she calmly considers what she does as small and quiet, and what she brings to life, that proves she's more extraordinary than anyone else.

Isn’t it extraordinary that a woman who lived only one life fought three times? As a young girl, she fought with her comrades to protect her homeland. As an adult, she fought for 20 years in university, determined to pass on her passion for the profession to the next generation. At the age of over 60, she once again fought against time in the journey of history - with her brush, palette, car, and statue - still maintaining the posture of a brave soldier.

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15 years have passed, the distance she traveled from North to South cannot be counted in kilometers, because it is an immeasurable distance. Even her children did not expect that their mother could do something that seemed impossible. Remembering the first day, the artist told her three sons: "I am doing something to repay life, you cannot do it, you cannot follow me or do it for me. You cannot do it, so you must let me do it."

On the day she left, they became the support for her to firmly step on the journey. The car she was driving was repaired by the brothers, with spare parts replaced for her convenience; the two phoneswere "equipped" by the brothers so that she could contact and take souvenir photos with the Vietnamese Heroic Mothers; or even the tire pump, small umbrella,... were all items prepared by her three children. With their wholehearted support, surely the brothers understood that the hardships of the journey were nothing compared to their mother's determination.

Her son, Pham Viet Phuoc, recalled: "When my father passed away, my mother announced that she would go on a journey to paint the Vietnamese Heroic Mother. I myself was very worried and hesitant because at that time my mother's health was not as good as before. But then I had to let her go and support her because once she made up her mind, she had to do it."

Not only her family, but also her friends from her childhood are the spiritual support that helps her to be confident on her relentless journey. Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Trang (78 years old) - a comrade of Ms. Dang Ai Viet is such a person. Ms. Trang and Ms. Viet first met in 1965 during a Congress in Trang Ta Xia, Tay Ninh. Later, when they joined the same unit, the Vietnam Women's Union, their friendship became increasingly close.

Talking about her friend's journey, Ms. Trang was moved: "It was a great journey. Ai Viet's determination to overcome the difficulties along the way was enough to make me proud and admire. Up to now, I cannot remember all the times Ai Viet sent me pictures of his journey to find his mother, and I cannot count the times I looked at the pictures and cried."

Not only was it a place to confide, Mrs. Trang and her group of friends were also a great source of spiritual encouragement for her friends. I remember the days when Mrs. Viet set up a tent in the forest waiting for the day to visit her mother's house. When her friends heard the news, they were all heartbroken and tried to find medicine to treat tick fever and malaria and send it to her.

Only then can we see that artist Ai Viet has traveled alone through many corners of the world and visited many countrysides, but we can be sure that her journey is not a lonely one.

There is no lonely journey, when more than 3,200 heroic Vietnamese mothers' hearts that she has painted - still beat with the same rhythm of love, when tens of thousands of her family members still warmly welcome her like long-lost relatives, when millions of eyes still follow her journey for nearly 15 years. And most of all, because her family and comrades are still by her side, proud and admiring.

Up to now, the race of artist Dang Ai Viet has not stopped for a single day, carrying with it a heart of nearly 80 years of love for life and people. And then, somewhere far away in Vietnam, we are not surprised to see the figure of an old woman - a woman who often wraps her silver hair in an old checkered scarf, ready to paint like a soldier diligently doing his last duty in life - racing against time to preserve the memory of heroic Vietnamese mothers for posterity.

We said goodbye to her in Tra Vinh, on a sunny February afternoon, carrying in our hearts the image of an old lady still working hard at an age when she should be resting and recuperating.

I returned to the hustle and bustle. Artist Dang Ai Viet got on the bus to continue his journey. I turned back to see her again, but her figure had disappeared into the crowd…