Jessica TranVo is a Boston-based mixed media artist.

Jessica TranVo is an artist that works in collages/mixed media. She graduated from BSU’14 as a double-major with Bachelor degrees in Fine Arts, English Literature, and a minor in Art History. Her background is in acrylic and oil painting on canvas and mixed media. She collages digitally or on paper with found images and incorporates elements of painting. Escapism & anxiety runs undercurrent through her surrealist collages: strange dualities, dreamscapes, the elements of nature and flowers and women reclaiming nature, space, desserts, etc. As a bilingual and bisexual Vietnamese American artist, she finds space for first generation, postmodernist anachronisms from neither here nor there. Follow for more on Instagram: @ennuiorsomething

en·nui /änˈwē/ (noun) ennui,

  1. Dictionary: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent; a feeling of being tired, bored, and dissatisfied https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/ennui

  2. From Old French enui, from ennuyer, to annoy, bore. The Old French verb anoier also gave rise to a noun, variously spelled enui and annui, meaning "chagrin, sadness." The Modern French form of this noun, ennui, came to mean "boredom, lassitude," and it was with this sense that the word was borrowed into English in the 1700s.

  3. Edward Gorey: “N is for Neville who died of ennui”; Sylvia Plath: “Ennui: Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe…”

ôr (conjunction) ˈsəmˌTHiNG/ (pronoun) or something,

  1. Tumblr: “ennui-or-something” was a personal blog used to collect memes & pictures before I realized collecting art and archived images could later lend to mixed media: https://ennui-or-something.tumblr.com

  2. A postcolonial reclamation. “French colonial administration sought to eliminate the Chinese writing system, Confucianism, and other Chinese influences from Vietnam by getting rid of Nôm. Folk literature in Vietnamese was recorded using the Chữ Nôm script, in which many Chinese characters were borrowed and many more modified and invented to represent native Vietnamese words. Created in the 13th century or earlier, the Nôm writing reached its zenith in the 18th century when many Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in Nôm, most notably Nguyễn Du and Hồ Xuân Hương (dubbed "the Queen of Nôm poetry"). However it was only used for official purposes during the two brief dynasties...” Source: Wikipedia.

  3. Vague. A slouchy posture

  4. (or something) Jessica Thuy Ngan TranVo is my full name.

    1. “Jessica” is English derived from Hebrew: The name Jessica means God Beholds and is of either Hebrew or Shakespearean origin. Jessica is a baby name that was popular in the 1990s. When I was studying in Ireland, the professor reached to Scottish Gaelic for my Gaelige name - Neasa or Nessie, like the Loch Ness Monster.

    2. Thúy Ngân is my given Vietnamese name. “Thúy” means water or the element mercury; quicksilver. “Ngân” means silver or plangency: to vibrate, to resound; Mèng Sây is a “middle name” my grandmother gave me from a serial about a wandering heroine.

    3. My parents were born in 1960s (Dad) and 1970s (Mom) in Vietnam. The Vietnam War ran from November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975. They met after immigrating to Utica, NY and are both half “white” mixed with no ties to their American fathers. My dad was separated from and later found his 3 adopted sisters (in addition to 1 sister and 1 brother who stayed with family). He found his birth father through extensive research in Arizona, in the early 2000s. My mom is refugee, a Quincy High/College alum, and an accountant who was raised by a Buddhist monk along with my grandma’s niece. My grandma at some point left the monastery, opened a convenience store that sold books later seized by the government for censorship or distribution of banned books and/or bullied by the new regime’s policy on business ownership, land seizures, etc. I was born in Boston, MA and grew up in Randolph with my parents, maternal non-English speaking grandmother, a younger sibling, my aunt, and my cousin. I still confuse people with my light-skin, as half-and-half white and half-and-half asian: I am mixed but grew up in a Vietnamese household. The American half of my blood is made up of public school education, television, and the wild frontier of the internet.

    Addendum: I am an artist with a day job (that is still creative). I work as a publicity & outreach administrator in higher education; have worked in administrative gigs, art, marketing, and graphic design. I will still freelance and/or take commissions. I just want to break this art world gatekeeping and model minority grift. The struggle is still real! https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicatv/