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

I'm also developing my own narrative, because I'm the son of a widow. And so, while working with women and gathering their oral histories, I'm taking a step back to do my own art book and visual work.

Sometimes it may be something I hear in the news that affects me.

I think that there are certain feelings and things you can convey in a simple form that people can see and understand.

I'm doing a collaborative project with another artist, Mary Hamill. My project is to gather the oral history of war widows, starting with the women of my village, Kop Nymit.

Some people have witnessed the killing of their husbands, or they survived other horrific things. My sister is a widow but her husband was killed after the Khmer Rouge. There are different periods in which violence has occurred, and differences in how these women became widowed and how they survived afterwards.

I don't approach my writing or my work from an academic or analytical point of view. I do it for myself.