A Little About Me:

Born and raised in central Wisconsin to Hmong refugees, I am a first generation American artist. My artwork focuses on how we as a people communicate and represent our personal selves. In my youthful art career, I focused on the American experience through friends/family and finding my identity. The duality of two culture clashing inside brought many years of confusion and denial. It took me years to realize that no matter how hard I tried to fit in, I was always going to be different. My identity could not be defined since my journey was still in it’s formation. As a woman of color in my mid 30’s, I found that I am the culmination of my experiences and am proud to reveal who I am.

Over the years, my growth is captured in bodies of work in revealing the identity I searched for in my youth. In my younger work, I created mini self-portraits through moments of pareidolia in water mediums (watercolor, coffee, tea, gouache, and glass enamels). Capturing these moments of spontaneity, silliness, self-doubt, and desperation, I allowed myself to be vulnerable, shared in art form. Furthermore, I created a case study using glass enameling to document points of my identity: a finger print, blood drop, hair encapsulated in enamels and layers of glass, my imagination of micro images, etc… Continuing on in my flower arrangements, I explored the representation of my fragility in blooming plumes communicating my connections with emotions and people in my life.  Moreover, my current body of work documents Hmong culture through glass art engraved with needlepoint designs historically depicting hopes and dreams.