I grew up all over the place. I was born in Thailand. I lived in Laos until it fell to communism in the mid 70's. Lived in Thailand until I was 10. My parents sent me to live with my uncle in Marietta, Georgia until 15. I spent the first five years of learning English from people who had the Southern drawl. Every so often that part of me will come out in the way a say a certain word, and people go "huh?" People still think of Asian faces as being from a different country, so they get really surprise to hear a southern accent come out of me. But it's there just underneath my skin. It's like I can switch vocal track and I talk as a southerner as naturally as native Georgians. I moved to a suburb of Seattle at 15. Moved to Southern California at 17. In high school is where I began to lose my southern accent, trying to fit in and all. Since moving to SoCal, I haven't left. Been living here nearly 20 years now.
I went to UCLA and studied economics. Actually took the long way there, I went in Undeclared Physical Science, finally declared Physics, then changed to Chemistry, then back to undeclared, before finally settling on Econ. I loved the theories of Econ, but didn't really figure out what I wanted to do with it. I graduated and worked for a year but realized I didn't want to be doing that for the next 40 years of my life. I finally figured out that I had to be passionate about what I do, since I'll take up half of my waking life. I finally came back to art. I had always done art of some kind since I was little. I'm a picture maker at heart, so I figure I'll go into the creative field. I researched and figured out that Graphic Design and Illustration are something that I would find fulfilling. After a year of working, I decided to go back to Art School and get formal education on design and illustration. While there are many who have become successful from self taught methods, I knew I wasn't smart enough to do that. I needed to get familiar with the basics and connect with mentors who could objectively point out my weaknesses and show me how to progress. I finished up art school in 2000, just as the dot com bombed. Finding permanent work was tough, but I found that there were plenty of demand for design still. I started taking up freelance gigs, and they just continue to sustain me, financially and spiritually, so here I am, self-employed, unstable and happy.
