(enchanted flute music)
- Baja, is such a place where many expats
make it a permanent home.
They make a, that choice, that lifestyle change,
where they vacation, but then they're like, you know what?
We're gonna stay.
And all kinds of people, artists come here and,
and enjoying the waves, the breeze,
the ionized air from the waves.
And it just becomes like this relaxed life that they make
for themselves.
And one such person is on, we're gonna talk to today.
His name is on Anh Pham, like being on point,
but Anh Pham.
He is right here. How you doing? Anh.
- Good, how are you?
- So, talk to me my friend.
You're obviously an artist because I see a lot of things
here from paintings to, I don't know if you make these too,
but I see also boogie boards.
Talk to me about your background.
- Yeah, I'm originally from San Diego, Del Mar,
surfing Del Mar, Rancho Penasquitos area.
And then the how housing crisis kind of pushed me out,
about 8, 9 years ago down here.
- This ain't a bad place to be pushed to?
- Yeah, Yeah. Beautiful place.
I fell in love with the people,
the people are just so amazing, just a different lifestyle.
- Wow - Yeah
- Well, when you were in, in the States, in San Diego.
Were you living this close to the beach?
- Yeah, but for a super high price.
- Right?
- You know, crowded streets, bad crime,
bad neighbors, bad landlord, bad apartments.
- Now what about here in Baja?
Because people probably are looking at you and saying like,
we're worried about that in Baja, like.
- Yeah, no, everyone's amazing here.
We all, everyone gets along.
I've never had problems down here.
- So, do you have a background in, cause I see here
some boogie boards.
Do you have a background in that before here,
or is this something you're trying out?
- Being down here in Baja,
surfing all the desert point breaks all along.
I mean, two, three day drive and just seeing nobody
but seals, you know, and whales and dolphins.
I started to realize and appreciate nature.
For instance, you know,
people buy those little festival fans that, you know,
they're plastic festival fans. - Yeah.
- But here we turn palm leaves from my company Earth Fan,
into most sturdiest fan you'll ever have.
It's good for shade, good for wind
and so I started to slowly think about boogie boards and how
can I make using my, my little tools and creativity.
How do you make an eco board?
last boogie board you'll ever buy.
- You kidding? - Yeah.
Because what happens with the,
the boogie boards you buy is the bottom peels away
water gets in it, you throw it in the landfill,
buy a new one at Costco.
- If it never deteriorate.
- No, it's just a piece of wood.
And once you start surfing it, it's just,
just a piece of Wood.
- Be sure it's see worthy?
- Oh yeah. This is the best, This is the best wave,
the fastest wave you'll ever go on. Vroom.
Yeah and also help people start thinking about
more ecologically friendly. - That's nice.
- Friendly things, like if you throw this away, it's just.
- Right? It's, it's something that's.
- Yeah - You know
- No chemicals, no plastic, no paint.
- Right? it'll disintegrate into the earth.
- Yeah.
- As it would normally, it'll be called compost.
- It's an earth fan. - Right.
Would you agree that being in an environment where,
you have nature just in front of you, as opposed to
just manmade things like surrounded in the city,
does that, you know, generate and also like, you know,
bring about more creativity, more inspiration.
Would you agree or disagree with that?
- Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, depression is real for everybody.
You know, when I was feeling down,
I just jump in the water, boogie board, surfboard,
my standup paddle doesn't matter.
- [Jorge] Aren't you happier when you do that?
- You get the spirit of the sun, the wind,
you have the eternal conflict of water
smashing against earth.
You have all these forces and you're just in it.
And by the time you get back, you're like,
I'm not depressed anymore. Let's paint something.
- You know, you're normally surrounded just by city.
So you see all this, all these manmade things
and you're just in the grind. - Yeah.
- But any of those people, you know, in the rat race
put 'em in the middle of like this amazing nature setting
and what happens. - Yeah.
- It's like instant inspiration, right?
- Yeah.
- You think of different things than
you normally don't every day. - Yeah.
- Anh, I'd like to see some of your art.
I see the boogie boards, but I understand you also paint.
Is it something you wanna show us some of the paintings
that, that you do? - Yeah.
I, I'm a fine artist, but I also,
I'm an airbrush artist.
- Oh wow. - By trade.
- What Are, what are those, the painting stroke,
you know techniques.
- This is a airbrush. It's all airbrush.
- All of it. - All of it airbrush.
It's a portrait of Carl Ekstrom and these are called
asymmetrical surfboards. - Wow
- And this is a picture of him surfing La Hoja
or Solana beach. - Yeah.
- In 1974 with one of these asymmetrical boards,
it's flatter on one side.
- So what's, what's the purpose of an asymmetrical board?
- Helps with your turning and it's a different technology.
- Does it take someone, you know, special adapting
or anyone who surfs can transition to one of these?
- I would say medium to expert people,
but like this other board I painted,
it's probably something your style, it's a long board.
- Hey, that one was, was a nice style too, I like it.
- Yeah, yeah.
I'm talking about the painting. I don't know how to surf so.
- Yeah. - I'm out of style surf wise.
- Yeah. So You know.
- So all these, you, you airbrush 'em you paint brush 'em.
- Yeah. This is just the top, it's gonna be half wax on it.
So I just kind of been painting it right now,
but pretty soon I'll be ready to ride.
It was an old surfboard that no one wanted
and I know how to repair my own surfboard.
So I peeled off the old fiberglass,
put new fiberglass, sanded it and painted it.
It's really famous here in Baja.
You'll see houses with outdoor showers.
- Okay.
- You know, big long boards and they turn 'em into showers.
- Oh really? - And stuff.
So yeah, yeah However I can...
- So are you planning on selling this one?
- This was, this was my, my actual surfboard.
- Also for you? - But I've painted.
Yeah I painted lots of surfboards around here and.
- What type of board is, forgive me?
I'm really ignorant in regards to surfboards.
So what kind of surfboard is this, what would you call this?
- This is a eight foot long board.
- It's a long board.
- More board means it's easier to stand on.
- Okay. Do you know how to surf,
Like in big waves and everything, All that good stuff?
- Yeah. We get really big waves here.
- Really?
- I take my standup paddle board out there
when it comes to 20 foot and bigger.
- Oh really?
- The spot only breaks like 15, 20 foot.
And, but it's perfect.
Yeah. I even broke a broke one of my surfboards.
Oh no, really? - Yeah.
So yeah.I paddled out here on a 20, 25 foot day
about my fifth wave, the mama wave came
and said, "nope."
Flipped me over, snapped the board I felt like my body
snapped in half a little bit too.
When I got up, it was in half, but now I fixed it.
I put four bamboo rods in here.
- Okay. - stuffed it together.
- Is that enough, Is that enough, you Think?
- Yeah and then you re-fiberglass it.
- Okay. - Really strong and.
- So is this, is this bad boy gonna go out again?
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, Yeah.
This is Gandalf, I call them Gandalf.
- [Jorge] Despite any challenges Anh Pham has faced.
He has managed not just to cope, but to thrive.
Everything around him is a crafted work of art.
Some simple, but others well, you just need to see.
Yep. No CGI or visual effect here.
That's the real sand he's working with for Mr. Pham.
The earth is his canvas and we get to witness it.
- This here is for eyeballs, this is what I use
to trace 'em.
- [Jorge] He uses some rudimentary gardening tools
combined with the spirit of a Renaissance man
and wait till you see what he comes up with.
(enchanted flute music)
He actually has to wait for the tide to be out, to do this.
And he only has a few hours to make his masterpiece.
Later the tide comes back and erases it all,
leaving only a photo or a time lapse for us to enjoy.
(enchanted flute music)
Just imagine being able to call the Beach your office.
(enchanted flute music)
Right on. So you're gonna show us some of your,
some of your artwork, right?
- Yeah. Welcome to my studio.
- Please telling you my friend, joining you, thank you.
Thank you, so much. - Oh, right.
- Oh wow, this is where the magic happens eh.
What technique is that? Is, is it also airbrush?
- Yeah, it's an airbrush.
It's a special paint that turns green to gold
when you move around, I don't know if you can see.
- [Jorge] Yeah, oh wow.
From a different angle, It goes us from gold to green.
That is so cool. - Yeah.
And it kind of just symbolizes one of the ancient ones.
- From what country would this ancient man be?
- That could be who, whoever.
- It looks almost like the Southeast Asia.
- Yeah.
- They have these type of tattoos.
Like in New Zealand, Tongans.
- I actually take a real feather and I place it there,
spray around it and move it, move it, move it.
- Are you kidding?
When you put the feather and you spray on it,
is that enough to make the shape?
That is Beautiful.
- And, then this one is also in that same color.
- Is that your wife, just checking?
- No.
Well maybe, maybe if they came to life.
- You have a beautiful imagination.
- Yeah. You know, as a surfer,
I'm really fascinated by waves.
- Oh wow.
- So, this is my new style of...
- That is beautiful.
- Where I make this part blurry, like you're in the water.
- I see it.
- Looking at the barrel or about to duck dive or.
- Well, it takes someone who who's been,
with that vantage point to be able to paint someone,
something that faithful.
I love, you know, these different shades of turquoise
or aqua blue.
- A little rainbow. - Yeah.
- I'm always fascinated by all different kinds of waves,
hollow ones, Kinda realized that's my new style.
- Wow. I don't know if you can see that from, it looks like,
like you have depth of field.
See how this part is blurry and then you can see this more
in focus. - Yeah.
- That's really nice, that's beautiful.
- And this, you know, that one make it look.
- Even, the sun is out, it's outta focus, right?
- The depth of field but on the opposite now.
- Look at how you made this, this water looks so crisp.
- Yeah. - And defined.
How did you get a painting? - Yeah.
- To look like it has depth of field
and outta focus and in focus.
How do, how does, how do you paint that way?
- Thank you. I really appreciate that.
- Yeah, It looks like a photograph.
- And here's just a normal beach with no depth.
- Now that looks real.
- It is. I think it's called cockroach rock.
- Okay.
- And here's a one that you would boogie board, you know.
- And again, I almost feel like I'm seeing like a lens
that is so cool.
- And you know, then I also do, you know,
I'm very fascinated by the desert.
I really love my deserts all over deserts.
- Well, not all of 'em are airbrushed, I can see
some of them are with actual, you know, brushes, right?
- Yeah, this is a special technique where I airbrush
the background. - Okay.
- And then do oil, like Bob Ross oils, oil style.
In this painting with the little dog that's
from my book called "The Last Of The Phatty Love Giants."
It's, it's about my dog.
- Oh really? - Yeah.
Yeah, she's old.
But see, I illustrated a children's book about her.
- Oh, look at that.
- It's a book about friendship, Love.
- All your paintings are in here.
- Yeah, I illustrated and real wrote it.
You know, it's about 400. - look at her.
- 400 foot giant Phatty used to live amongst the people
and animals and she was the balance of nature.
- Is this out focus your technique, did you do that?
- Yeah, so you airbrush it blurry
and whatever you paint in the front makes it look like.
- That is, that is a really cool look.
- Thank you.
- I don't think I've seen that, you know,
before in paintings, it, it looks like,
like a lens depth of field.
But I'd never seen that with airbrushing before.
- Yeah, You could use airbrush for a lot of things. Yeah.
So he, Han which is me.
- Oh, really?
- He, he brings these little flowers that she eats
and she's like a 400 foot thing.
- And that's really nice. - Yeah.
Illustrate, she's actually a.
- You're a good painter.
I mean, on top of the air-brushing, cuz this is,
this is painting.
- Yeah. That's a paint brush.
- The, the normal paint brush.
Did you not go to school for that either?
- No.
- How did you, how did someone would not go to school,
like make that kind of detail?
- Trial and error and you know...
- The shading, the, you know, the,
I mean just hair is probably not that easy to do,
especially with all the different colors so.
- Me and her are a therapy animal team with love on a leash.
- Oh you, you take her to, to, to help people with,
you know.
- Yeah, hospitals, schools, you know, kids reading programs.
Well, she's retired now, but you know, hospitals,
adult day cares and make people feel better.
And even colleges when they have their finals.
- Yeah. - We'll go in there.
- To lower the stress.
- Lower their stress, the furry fluffy day
and so this book kind of inspired me to make a book
about her, how she heals the earth.
He has to find her, she follows him
they become best friends.
- You see on here, you know, paddle boarding.
- Wherever she goes, the animals follow her.
- I guess it's it's her pre Cambrian explosion so.
- Yeah, pre Cambrian yeah.
I don't wanna give the story away, but everyone cries.
- Oh yeah. - Yeah.
- It'd be a, it looks like a very nice bedtime
story book for kids. - For sure.
And this is my little card that comes with it.
And on there you can scan, it gives you a ebook
and I narrated an audio book for the kids.
Remember back in the day in the eighties,
we'd get a tape with our book, cassette tape
and you push play.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- When you hear the beep you turn the page,
this is the same book, yeah.
- Let me take a picture of that, that's gonna be nice.
- Yeah. First time I narrated written or illustrated a book.
(lighthearted guitar music)
- [Jorge] You can tell, he cannot sit still.
He's always creating.
I'm blown away that he's self taught.
(lighthearted guitar music)
- [Anh] These are all my famous female DJs.
They just world famous DJs that,
I'm really moved by that music.
You know? - Yeah.
- This is Tara Brooks from Los Angeles.
This is Charlotte De Witte from Ukraine.
- Oh I You have some Asian string instruments.
- Yeah, my Vietnamese culture is still
a big part of my life.
I speak my language, I cook my food.
- You speak Vietnamese?
- Oh yeah, a little, I speak...
- You wanna say Something to the audience?
(speaking Vietnamese)
- What He said.