Even though I'm not privileged in the money world, I'm privileged in other ways: I had greater access to education, I can travel, etc. It's the same with writing: the freedom to move in and out of different places, of different realms of existence, of different life forms.
It's like you're organically developing yourself, moving out, metamorphosing into other forms depending on where you are, what you're doing at the time, how you want to play on things.
I have some advantages of viewing from the two lenses, the two perspectives. I think that a lot of visual artists who come back here from the United States and are Cambodian also write from their American references - looking inside the old culture, and looking at themselves as an American looking into the country where they were born.
I write and I write and a lot of times I go back to the American lens, though sometimes it's a struggle to come from that perspective.
Sometimes I fantasize about learning to write in Khmer. Because if I could write in Khmer, my perspective would be very different, because I'm both an outsider and insider and I see the writing in a different way. My description would be different from, say, a local writer.
I think there are things I can't write in English that I wish I could write in Khmer.
I have a great advantage: I write from the perspective of my own voice. I'm not copying anyone's voice. It's my voice. I have the advantage of being a writer of English as a second language.
If I were really fluent and born into the English language, I would probably become a greater writer.
When you're reading from a different language that's different from your own, it's not the same as being fluent.
Even if you look in the dictionary you know the meaning of the word or phrase, but there's still the feeling of it.
When I hear Khmer poets, when they recite their poems, I know what they're talking about, I get it right away.
It's really hard when you read literature in a language that's not your own. There are all these cultural references you have to be born into that particular language to get.
I liked museums but I wanted to be a dancer, I wanted to go into performing arts, or be a writer.
When I was in the sixth grade my friend and I always won writing contests, and we read a lot of books. We were always the ones that read the most books in class. I thought about writing but visual arts weren't part of my vocabulary.
I started to paint in the year 2000. I never thought of going to an art school, even though I loved art.
I think every writer has their waves of inspiration and their ways of doing things. But writing is very difficult for me. It's something I haven't practiced as diligently as my visual art. I've been doing visual art because I think it's easier for me to construct, whereas words are very difficult.
It's hard to choose the right word, the right line. This Body Mystery is a small book, but it took me over ten years.
I read a lot when I was in school in the United States, and even though writing in English is very difficult for me, I wrote in journals.
I tried to write poems in rhyme. I tried writing songs. Sometimes I jotted down a thought. I would keep a log of spontaneous thoughts.
Art is really about how you capture different things you see around you and bring them into forms and words and shapes and meaning.
Everything around you can use. It's like your tools and your material. Whether it's in performing arts like dance, or visual arts, or poetry, a lot of those elements can come and help you, can trigger your creativity. But you have to be open, be aware, and you have to be ready to look.
You have to experiment with different mediums and things around you [making art].
Mary's [Hamill] working from an outsider perspective and I'm working from an insider-outside perspective. In this case, it will bring an added dimension to the visual aspects of the work. Also the processes and approaches that I'm thinking are about learning. I'm playing it by ear to experiment and see what happens.
I'd like to do more collaborations because collaboration creates different viewpoints.
This is my first collaboration [with Mary Hamill] so I'm going to learn how it's going to work.
Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends
or simply:
