Michael Hern graduated from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (N.S.C.A.D.) in 2005 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Since graduation he has continued to paint and draw when he isn't teaching. He has had exhibitions in South Korea, Canada and shown work around Vietnam. His artworks are inspired from living in big cities and painting that surround him. Living in Seoul he worked on the reflected windows in skyscrapers and buildings crammed in small spaces. In Vietnam he paints old homes which show evidence of their age and history. The drawings are entitled stacked because of the desperation of space available in condensed neighbourhoods resulting in stacking up of rooms on top of one another. Of course this is exaggerated in the drawings; the locations exist, yet they are manipulated. The other drawings of famous locations are part of an ongoing project entitled every building in Ho Chi Minh.