Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Vo.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Chris. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My passion for art was discovered when I was in the first grade. I absolutely adored it. Painting, drawing and crafts of all kind. I remember one time a famous art lady, I guess we can call her art lady, came to speak in my first-grade class. I was very sick that week, high fevers, snot running down my face, but I, the determined artist that I was, showed up to school anyways. My teacher told art lady of my honorable decision and art lady came to pat my back and I was the happiest I had ever been in my six years of life. I didn’t understand at the time why I was so infatuated with art; I know now that I was truly a resilient person. Whether or not I wanted to admit it, I was always strong. When people took away my voice, my free-will and my confidence, I found a way to express myself despite what people stole from me. And it was art. My art is proof that I was never meant to submit.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My story began when I started grade school. I grew up in a very conservative Vietnamese home and my parents taught me to pretty much keep my mouth shut and follow. I was never allowed to have a voice and I didn’t feel comfortable talking to people because I didn’t know how to talk to my own parents. To this day, a lot of my childhood traumas are still kept from my parents. You take this shy, quiet, vulnerable, scared little Asian girl and put her in a public school amongst her peers. How was she supposed to assimilate? Oh, that’s right, she doesn’t. She just gets bullied. And I don’t just mean school, I mean everywhere. Church, family-friend groups and even within my own family. Kids are truly awful to each other; I’m shocked a lot of my teachers are allowed to facilitate children. School, my family, even church of all places, made me feel insignificant, invisible, worthless, and good for nothing except for whenever they managed to use me for. Don’t get me wrong, I am still Christian on my own free-will, I just learned that the people in church aren’t always good people. God is still good and always will be. Finally, to top it all off, I was diagnosed with Diabetics type 1 at the age of 4 and had A.D.H.D, in an Asian house-hold no less.
Please tell us about your work.
I am first and foremost an artist and a college student. On the side I model, photography is a new found art that I recently started doing and I model a lot for my talented significant other who is a photographer (Instagram is sojonnyboy). My education means a lot to me because it is going to help me launch my tattoo business in the future. At this time, I would like to consider myself a free-lancer. I am breaking out of my shell and showing the world my paintings on Instagram. These paintings have meaning to me and I am ready to show people my world. Therefore, I am setting up a patron account that is in my Instagram bio (@moon13baby) with three tiers that include benefits and mailed goodies. This is to help me save money for an iPad pro where I can start doing digital art. And then save up enough for tattoo supplies so I can become a tattoo apprentice. After reaching my goal of buying tattoo supplies, I promised to add the fourth tier, which is the canvas club, where I ship canvas paintings to my patrons each month. I have just started this patron journey and I am looking forward to connecting with people and grow as an artist.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I wouldn’t do anything different, if I had to start everything over. God really helped me in my journey as an individual and as an artist. I needed every experience that made me into the person I am today; to have learned the things that I learned. There were plenty of near-death incidences due to my diabetes, addiction and being with the wrong people at the wrong times. But I always made it out, there was more in store for me to just lay down and die. Would I ever succumb to those habits again? Absolutely not, but the experiences I did have needed to happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.patreon.com/moon13baby
- Email: chriscvo13@gmai.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moon13baby/
Image Credit:
Photographer Jonathan Sobel, instagram is @sojonnyboy and @oakandsable
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