Artist Vivian Vien remembers participating in her first major convention in 2024. She sat at a table covered in colorful keychains, stickers, and prints of anime characters mid-motion—all made from her original illustrations. A CU Denver student at the time, she was working toward her bachelor of fine arts and felt ready to take on a booth at the Colorado Anime Fest. Despite feeling terrified and nervous, she told herself she’d at least get a chance to wander around and find one of her favorite voice actors, who was advertised to be there, to get an autograph.
But before she could get away to look for that actor, a man walking by noticed her booth and did a 180—one of her prints had caught his eye. It was the very person she’d had her heart set on meeting that day—and he asked her to sign the print for him. “He told me I worked hard and was more than deserving to be there,” said Vien, BFA `25. “Our interaction meant—and still means—a lot to me.”
It was one of many meaningful interactions to come that keep her going as an independent artist who earns her living selling her work. She’s leveraged the skills she honed at CU Denver—where she received her undergraduate degree in illustration from the College of Arts & Media and a business administration minor from the Business School—to make her dreams a reality.
Since that day at Colorado Anime Fest, she’s sold her work at many more conventions, going by the alias Viviitartt. This year, she had a booth at FAN EXPO Denver, which took place at the Denver Convention Center from May 28 through 31. She was also commissioned by the CU System to create four original Pokémon-inspired cards, each depicting a “mon” representative for a University of Colorado campus, to pass out at the event. It’s more than she ever dreamed of when she first started out in her creative career.
How It All Started
Long before Vien was a professional artist, she was coloring in hand-drawn images in the back of her family’s restaurant, Double Happy in Louisville. Her dad would make simple outlines for her and her cousins to scribble in—a way of entertaining them while he and his wife were busy with the restaurant. When he was too busy to draw them, the kids would create the outlines themselves. Vien kept drawing all the way through high school, and when it was time to pick a university, she chose CU Denver for its illustration program.
Her parents, who had immigrated from Vietnam to find more opportunities, encouraged her every step of the way. She never felt forced to pursue a specific career path. “My parents never had the opportunity to go to college,” Vien said. “To them, as long as their kids were happy pursuing something they enjoyed, then it was OK.” Choosing to make your way as an artist can be daunting for many, but their support drove her to make the most of opportunities to explore her passion.
Growing in the CU Denver Community
At CU Denver, Vien pushed herself to build new skills, like working in a more painterly style than she ever had before. But, what helped her grow the most as an artist was the community she found as a Lynx. “I had never had peers that could provide feedback and constructive critique that I could take with me before [attending the] university,” Vien said.
That support emboldened her to experiment as an artist and student. “I often made it a goal to take my education by the throat and take initiative to not only meet the goals of my assignment, but push what I can learn and do on my own,” Vien said.
She was only in her second year at CU Denver when she decided to start selling her creations at a night market. During the next two years, she slowly invested in supplies and inventory—prints, key chains, and other items created with her original works. Her family would come to the events with her to help, and her parents bought her a printer so she could create more inventory herself. Her business grew and, after her first Colorado Anime Fest, she began attending more conventions to sell her work.
What was once an out-of-reach dream—traveling the country to experience conventions in new places—became Vien’s new normal. At first her family was skeptical of her traveling out of state to sell her work, but they still came along to help her. Ultimately, her career as an artist made it possible for her to share new experiences across the country with them. “When you’re a kid, your parents and family help expand your world,” Vien said. “Now, it’s my turn to expand theirs.”
Thriving Where It All Began
This year, she returned to her Lynx roots at FAN EXPO Denver, which took place just across Speer Boulevard from the Auraria Campus. For the first time, two booths at a convention featured her work: her own table, where she sold her creations, and CU Denver’s table at the event, where her “mon” cards were available. The cards leverage skills she gained at CU Denver and had to be created on a shorter timeline than she’d experienced before.
Vien sketched out each card side-by-side to ensure they had a consistent style while also maintaining unique elements—like the computer program interface on CU Denver’s card, and cinematic black bars reminiscent of the letter boxes used to maintain aspect ratios in films on CU Boulder’s. The cards for CU Denver, CU Boulder, and UCCS were based on each campus’ mascot and one of their creative programs. For CU Anschutz, which does not have a mascot, Vien invented a creature: DNA-mite, a nod to the biomedical sciences.
Each card demanded a slightly different approach to represent the depicted program’s unique attributes, and she found herself adjusting her technique as she worked. In other words, the commission created a major opportunity for her to meet her moment as a professional artist. “As a fresh graduate, it really means a lot to me,” Vien said. “I’m glad that my art style and skill, as it is now, is recognized and valued enough by CU that they would want to commission me to represent the schools on these cards.”
Vien intends to keep making original creations to sell at conventions. And, as much as she loves getting to network and participate in the convention community, it’s the thought of the little girl she once was, coloring in her father’s line drawings, that keeps her going. “Can you imagine how excited that little girl would be to know what she’s doing with her drawings?” Vien said. “Can you imagine how proud her parents must be?”