All posts tagged: Painting

Painting with Soul: An Interview with Loy Khambay-Correa

Today at Little Laos on the Prairie we interview Loy Khambay-Correa, one of the new voices we met during this year’s National Lao American Writers Summit. Her work was among the pieces exhibited at Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, California. Born Kheuthmy Khambay, her name meant “Grow Rich Gold Leaf.” Over the years her close family and friends began calling her Loy, which either means “slip away” or “swim.” She was born in a small village in Savannakhet, Laos. Her formative years were spent in Saint Louis, MO and Saint Petersburg, FL. She developed her love for art watching her uncle Thai Khambay draw when she was a little girl. “I was inspired and mesmerized by his drawings, by the age of 8, I started to draw with him,” she says. She attributes much of her success these days to the tough love her parents gave her, giving her the strength, determination and blessings that drove her to excel. She received her degrees in Commercial Arts along with a Film & Video Production …

Art and Soul: Talking with artist Aloun Phoulavan

Art has been a significant part of the journey for many Lao Americans to express their experiences. In Minnesota, the Lao community has many artists and educators who try to keep our traditions alive. Among them is Aloun Phoulavan. Born in Vientiane, Laos in 1971 and raised in Northeast Thailand, he is the second oldest of five children born to immigrant Lao-Thai parents. He and his family came to the US in 1976 with the first wave of Southeast Asian immigrants. His family was sponsored by a church, and they first resettled in south central Wisconsin. Aloun has been taught art for over eleven years, of which ten of those years he spent teaching grades K-12 in the St. Paul Public Schools. He has presented at numerous community exhibitions including the Five Senses Show, the National Lao American Writers Summit, and many others. We had a chance to catch up with him about his latest direction during the 40th anniversary of the Lao diaspora. Can you tell us a little about yourself, and how did …