The two minute animation was modeled and rendered by Maya Autodesk (that was originally designed for Disney’s Pixar animators) and incorporated with Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. Similar to her works in oil, Bloom was Mac’s year-long project that circled around the theme of self-exploration, particularly within her spiritual philosophies. Raised by a family that practices Buddhism but growing up in Catholic and Lutheran schools (abroad and away from her family) for over half of her childhood, Mac was always curious about how to find balance in life as an in-between person. Bloom was exhibited as part of the annual Art & Tech group show at Brauer Museum in Valparaiso City, Indiana in 2016.

 

“Being the in-between person can be a blessing and a burden sometimes, it makes you unique and stand out but also isolates you from others. I have been the in-between my whole life. I am a middle child. I have more than one country that I call home. I have more than one root culture. I am a part of a generation that’s childhood came at a time during pre-smart technology and the social media era and half a decade after my teens (as a young adult), a big part of my career depends on those instant technologies and social media platforms. Originally, both my real name and Buddhist names are associated with beauty and flowers, and my family and religion taught me to live up to my name. I decided not to change myself to please others who don’t understand my differences. My layers of complexities continued to reveal themselves as I bloom and become who I am today.” My Linh Mac