Grafting Paintings by Snail Shells

He is Ngoc Nam Lu, and is living in a small alley behind Cam Thanh cinema (Hoi An). Mr Ngoc Nam Lu said: “Ruoc snail – a kind of small snails and only appears in Quang Nam – Da Nang and Thua Thien Hue- when boiled, their meat is delicious and becomes a favorite dish not only for his family but people in the old town as well. Because of their small size, when eating people have to buy one or two milk cans of snails. After eating, snail shells are thrown away as a waste product.”

Wow, How beautiful snail shells are!

Ngoc Nam Lu thought: “Nature gave human beings a kind of snail which is small but beautiful and colorful, so their shells are for gazing away, not for throwing away. Then, he tried selecting them according to their colors- pink yellow, blue, dark brown… oh great! With his nature painting passion, he decided to graft paintings basing on the different lovely colours of the snails, and he began doing this at the first Ruoc snail haverst of 2003. Chua Cau painting, his first work, was unexpectedly successful and received many congratulations and support from his wife, children and neighbors. His first success made him more interested in this kind of art, and making unconscious snail shells to be conscious is now really a passion for him, a traditional medicine doctor with more than 20–year experience. The patience and carefulness of being a traditional medicine doctor helped him successful. At the present time in his collection there have had more than 30 paintings with different topics, and most of them are about Quang Nam country and people such as Hoi An town, My Son tower, and even his family with a lovely wife and 5 beautiful daughters.

ollecting snail shells – a hard job

60 paintings for a oil-painting, lacquer painting artist is just a small collection, however for Ngoc Nam Lu, 60 grafting paintings is a great collection. At first, he, his wife and his children went around the town to ask for buying snail shells, then he bought snail shells from bottle-buyers. When he had nearly 1 ton, he put them in 50 kg sacks and took these sacks to Ngoc Thanh (Cam Pho) river bank and steeped them in the river for 1 day and 1 night. After that, he washed them carefully to throw away all soil inside the snail shells and dried for 2 days. Then, snail shells were covered at home until there was no fishy smell. Then, snail shells were distinguished according to their colors and sizes.

A work – A Month

After using a pencil to draft on cloth or wood, Ngoc Nam Lu spread glue on. Day by day he carefully pasted small snails on until it became a vivid painting. Usually, it took him a half or more than to finish 1 painting. However, sometimes with the excitement he worked during the day and night, and finished 1 painting within 10 days. Mr Dang Mai, Ngoc Nam Lu’s neighbor said “ Sometimes in the early morning Mr Ngoc Nam sat by a glass of coffee and grafted painting, and he forgot having lunch. Ngoc Nam’s hand seemed magical. His eyes looked at the painting, while his hands picked the snail shells to put them on the frame. However, all snail shells on the painting have the same height, so the painting was nearly flat not craggy. Let’s have a look at the roof of Chua Cau painting, yin and yang roofs which are put in order along the dome look very vivid.

Mr Phung Vo, the director of Hoi An Culture and Sport center said “Mr Ngoc Nam Lu’s painting has an individual style, and it predicts a new job for Hoi An tourist service. On Tet holiday last year, we invited Mr Ngoc Nam Lu to exhibit his paintings at Hoi An Cultural park. All residents and tourists were surprised and praised”

Le Viet Hai

(Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper, HCM city)