I work fulltime at a fashion design company in Ho Chi Minh City. After work, I am usually found at a wireless cafe or with friends. With what free time I have, I try to be regular and committed to my arts practice. It's not like I'm an insurance salesman by day and an artist by night. There's a lot of overlap. The image above shows some the books on my desk at work. Some art catalogs, some design magazines (interior design, architecture, and design history), a New Yorker.

It all works in tandem. I wrote about this in an earlier entry, Artists Raised by Designers.

Tyranny of the Punchclock

I have had many jobs where I'd have to punch in my hours. Punch out for lunch break, punch back in after lunch. It's dehumanizing. Never again.

I've worked with Ngo Thai Uyen and her fashion design company, NTU, since it's inception in 2004. My official title is Director of Media. I work on ideas, graphic design and arrange the music for the fashion shows among other things. Uyen and I met in Boston in 2001 at my art college. Together with three other artists we established our art group, Projectone, in Saigon in 2003. Because of the cross-disciplinary nature the work that we all do, there is a flexibility that allows me to fold in my experience and knowledge from art and culture into the company design and likewise, the company allows me time for to continue my arts practice (read: i am not fired when I must take time off to prepare for an exhibition). We all work together and realize the importance of the other parts of peoples lives and that's the way art and design ought be.