I started to paint in the year 2000. I never thought of going to an art school, even though I loved art.
Chath PiersathEven 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.
Chath PiersathI 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.
Chath PiersathI 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.
Chath Piersath