Inkstone: Paintings and Poems. Hanoi (Hanoi Studio)

After an existential crisis of loss and displacement in the West, the Poet, and the Artist, relocated to the ancient Occidental city of Hanoi.

Rather than living on the outskirts of Hanoi in opulent dwellings designated for foreigners, they chose to rent a 1920's French colonial villa, in an historic alley of the French Quarter.

This move was destined to become a 'homecoming', a place of belonging in the cultural heart of Hanoi.

During the seven years that followed, they struck up enduring friendships with local people. Over time and through a rare acceptance, and personal generosity of the locals, the Poet and the Artist became involved with Vietnamese weddings, street food, art, poetry, culture, history, funerals, colonialism, family, superstition, hopes, dreams, and secrets of everyday life. In this way they became part of the extended Vietnamese 'family, and friends to this day.

A decade later, Blanshard & Blanshard's collective book of paintings and poems, sets this time in amber - a rare compilation of personal and creative disclosure, where loss, hope, and courage touch and merge together.

Perhaps now, The Red River flows eternal in the blood of the Poet, and the Artist, to remember life in Vietnam - how the Orient forever changed them.