More than 50 people attended the “Fabulous Life of Lisa Nguyen” at the student art galleries Sunday night, where many friends of the late Cal State Long Beach alumna Lisa Nguyen showcased artwork inspired by and dedicated to her.
Nguyen died in an apparent murder-suicide last month, according to local media. Some of Nguyen’s closest friends DJed her favorite music or contributed snacks and drinks for the occasion.
“[Lisa] was the most exciting person any of us have ever known,” said Jennifer Cotterill, a close friend of Nguyen and an organizer of the event. “We wanted to have a big party for her because a funeral and something kind of somber was not appropriate for the kind of person that she was.”
The memorial event not only attracted friends of Nguyen, but family and faculty as well.
Robyn Do, Nguyen’s niece, saw Nguyen as a mentor for her to follow since she was the only other artist in the family.
“Being an artist in an Asian family is kind of tough, so the fact that she was so talented … opened a path for me … and [my family] understood what I was going to do too,” Do said.
Nguyen’s artistic abilities were evident since childhood, according to her uncle Alexander Druong.
“At the age of nine … she would make movies out of Play-Doh … so we knew she had a lot of art in her,” Druong said.
Robin Richesson, head of the illustration program at CSULB and Nguyen’s former professor, also contributed to the gallery with a sketchbook that showed Nguyen in different types of outfits she could imagine her wearing.
“I have a costume figure drawing class, and she used to come and model for the class because she had such great clothes and such fantastic style,” Richesson said.
Do said more than 60 pieces of artwork were contributed to the gallery.
The party continued at the Prospector Steakhouse afterward. Money collected from the cover charge and sold artwork from both events went toward the Lisa Nguyen Memorial Scholarship.
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