Visual Art – Milwaukee
I am an Art Director currently working for corporate America in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design in 2009 from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD). During my senior year at MIAD, I partnered with Christina Vang to work on our senior thesis project. Because we are both second generation Hmong Americans, we realized the importance of our Hmong culture and how fast it is disappearing as we all become more and more assimilated in the U.S. We felt this wasn't just us but a shared common feeling among many Hmong American people in our generation. From this realization, "The Door in the Mountain: A Hmong Folktale Project" came to fruition. We worked on capturing Hmong folktales with my father by recording and then translating them to English. The decision to translate this to English was a wish to expand these stories to more than just the Hmong community and share them with everyone.
Christina and I created books, dolls, posters, postcards and CDs to bring this project to life during the MIAD senior show in 2009. Our project was among the few that were chosen as Best of Show. It was also featured on the front page for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Arts section as well as an interview on Milwaukee's public radio.
After the show ended, the work was stored away and we went about with their lives. Christina moved out of town and I got married and started a job with a Fortune 500 retail company. I gave birth to my son in 2013. Being a mother made me realize the importance of my culture by preserving and passing it on to the next generation. After five years of storing it all in my attic, I resurrected this folktale project and am working hard to share the work with everyone again.
The idea of keeping the culture alive and adapting it to reach these younger generations as well as educating other cultures about the Hmong people through folktales is what motivates me. This is only the beginning and I hope to continue to capture more folktales and bring them to life. I plan to make this my life-long project that I get to experience with my son.