The Best We Could Do and the best I could draw

The muscles are accurate by the way
This is how I felt that night (muscles are accurate btw)   

It was 2 am, which meant that I had reached the stage of night where everything starts to become either funny or like a hallucination to me. For some reason however, I didn't feel high - I was feeling philosophical. As I read through the required chapter of The Best We Could Do, I felt like an absolute genius, analzying every word and every stroke of paint on the pages. And then, out of nowhere, a bright, metaphorical lightbulb appeared over my head. 


Thats when it hit me: the title, The Best We Could Do, brings a comletely different meaning and perspective when viewed through an artistic lens. Bui's entire memoir is essentially an act of doing her best: utilizing art, empathy, and research to connect with her audience at a deeper level. In fact, she even admits to this in the preface, acknowledging that she didn't feel like she had "solved the storytelling problem of how to present history in a way that is humnan."  Watching her navigate through her own family history made me reflect on what I consider 'the best I can do', which usually looks like spending hours on a sketch on my art project only for it to look like poop. But the thing is, our experiences are oddly comparable. Now, im not saying that her art looks like poop, but Bui's panels aren't complete, polished drawings either. In fact they're Gritty, textured, and most importantly, human, which mirrors the uncertainty and crudeness of the book. To me, there's something comforting in knowing that everything doesn't have to be 100% perfect in order to convvey a message. Throughout her book. Bui has panels that look artistically incomplete, with unfinished hands, blotchy shading, and more, but they still feel complete. Art isn't always about keeping every atom flawless, but more so about honoring the weight and truth that the artwork holds. The small imperfections in art can be filled with the connotations that they infer. In that sense, Bui and I are both dong "the best we coud do", and maybe that's the whole point.

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