 Hello. Welcome to Web Chat Wednesdays. I'm Chris and I'm a studio guide at the Long Beach Public Library and I'm here with Artie. Hello everyone. Welcome to Web Chat Wednesday. Our special guest today is Seon Cypersuth. Seon is a local artist and community leader in Long Beach. He has worked on a variety of art and community projects in the city of Long Beach. And Seon, that was just a brief description. Is there anything you want to add? I'm a part-time lecturer at Cal State Long Beach as well. And yeah, no, just you got most of it local resident and artist and community activists as well as just working in a nonprofit at United Cambodian Community. A lot of stuff going on. That's awesome. So the first thing we wanted to talk about was your art. And how long have you been making art? Oh my gosh. I probably typically, you know, what people say, I was probably born an artist. I started to make, I just love crayon, colorful things. When I was little, I just wanted to actually little eat them because they just look like candy. But I really started out as a very young age, I want to say about five or seven when I had a chance to, when I realized that you can make art and draw things to occupy your time. And it was just a great way for me to escape from my reality at the time when I lived in, so just a quick background, I came from Cambodia, you know, genocide going on in the 1775 to 79. My eight, 10 people in my family, eight siblings and two parents. So we were living in a refugee camp and that was like a really a great way for me as a child making artwork. And I made this cut out puppet. And I had a like a shadow puppet. And then, and I was entertaining a person younger than myself. And then that other individuals completely mesmerized. And I myself, I surprised myself that I made this thing that was actually entertaining. And it's like, Oh, but the way that shadow was cast, which is amazing, you know, and, and I just really happy in the, like the impact that it had on myself and this other kid. Yeah, I'm sure that could be like a big influence when you're young and make something and someone like reacts so positively. And I could also see like, yeah, that you were in this like harsh reality and you were, you know, you were creating your own realities and sharing it with other people. And that's beautiful. What are some of the recurring themes that you explore through AR? I think, you know, a lot of it is so, you know, when people go through something as harsh as, you know, having to abandon your country in order to survive because your life depends depends on it. So a lot of the theme for me is the interconnectedness of traumatic memories and worldwide, perhaps education that I do for myself. And a lot of it just seems to be connecting towards like the Vietnam War that led up to the genocide in Cambodia, and then the the migration. So a lot of those just overlap. So what I tend to do is to try to make sense and connect as a memory, kind of a memory project. And that happens in a variety of ways. For example, you know, me coming into this country because of the war that originally started with Vietnam, and then it destabilized that area of Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand was, I think it was very protected for whatever reason. And then when I come to this country, I was able to see the results of what took place. Can I share a screen real quick? Just an image. Yeah, it was an ad for the next definitely some some piece that kind of covers what you're talking about. So sorry, this image is a little bit small. This one's a little better, but not great. So it started seeing all these signs, you know, on the street, even till today. And this was this I was done this, I did this five years ago, and paying Vietnam vets about paying for their lunch and just talking to them a little bit and introducing myself. I probably met just five people. And then I asked them if I can just take a picture of them together. And this individual was very annoyed and angry, at the same time, but he just felt like he wanted lunch. And this gentleman was a little bit nicer, really happy, go lucky guy kind of reminds me of my dad let it because he's just so jolly. And so but the but the underlining of them always, you know, they also suffer suffer from mental health issue, and perhaps lack of support or isolation from the family. And then as I also find out, now, the such a divide of that war for that time. Yeah, I didn't know you were into photography too. And I think that's an interesting project that you spearheaded. No, well, I'm into photography as like a document to record something, but I'm not a photographer at all. I just like the idea of the art as as a way to share the story, which ties back into like my experience as a refugee that got displaced. Yeah. Do you have a favorite medium to work with? So I, I do. I really enjoy working with my hand. So I'm just going to keep continuing to share screen with you all. Okay. Can you see this image? Yeah. Okay, this is a better one. So I really enjoy working with my hand. A lot of my growing up is my, my parents are farmers. So we live in the countryside. My background, formerly, I studied as a studio artist. I studied painting at Cal State Long Beach. And then when I went to Claremont, I, Claremont Graduate University, I got more into like, tactile and sculptural images. And this piece probably came out after graduate school. And it's basically ready made materials, some found garage materials that was in the garage, like, you know, house paint. And I got some those flower things on on the back is from a thrift shop. And so I repurposed a lot of images material as well. That's awesome. It looks, even the shadow looks like really beautiful. And I'm looking at your site and that was, that was one of my, my favorite pieces. Thanks. I really enjoyed like, I thought your paintings were really awesome too. Like, I think it's really interesting how you include like religious imagery into some of the paintings. Yeah, that's another thing too. So when I came to this country, a lot of people came the same way I did, whether it's so it's either through a sponsorship from a religious organization, or family that have enough money or support to bring you over, or philanthropists. But for my family, we came over and we are really grateful we were, we arrived through the Lutheran church in the Midwest in Iowa. And then you become, you kind of relinquish your religion from where you came from. And now you've all of a sudden become like a Christian family. So even just kind of in that transition, it could, you know, it could really mind about people. And then people could have a loss of identity in more than one way, you know, identity as in cultural, ethnically identity, and then placement and now religion. So you've kind of almost like completely trying to refigure who you are. Yeah, especially at such a young age, I can imagine how that could be like really shocking or confusing. Does this piece kind of reflect any of those feelings? You talked about like how you made it, but is there like a certain message behind this? Well, you know, the thing is, I think with art, I want people to take in an image for themselves and then decipher what they see in it. But for me, just the overall, like a contemplation in this piece of what this figure is thinking about or doing or carrying. And so it's, you know, as what I've shared about my background a little bit with you all, those are probably some of the stuff and the image and the influence that goes into making this piece. Thank you for showing us this. Yeah, I like that you leave the experience up to the viewer. You know, I could go multiple directions, you know, depending on my state of mind in the moment that I'm experiencing your sculpture. So I know you painted some walls around Long Beach. How did you first get involved with murals and public art? Yeah, let's see the way that came about. So when I started working with with UCC, so I was back at corporate world, I used to work for a phone company for like 16 years. So I was going in and out of, you know, Cubeville for all that time. And then when that didn't work out anymore, I was jumping from job to job. And then I've landed here at this nonprofit here in Long Beach, which is a great place. And at that time, 2017, the Arts Council had this Campbell to Town mural project going on. And then they, you know, put a call out to artists. But I believe within that project that they had already connected with UCC to lead one of the mural. And then so my director had asked me, you know, okay, well, we're going to do one mural. And you're going to lead it pretty much. And I had no idea what the thing was, what mural was and how to even look at it. Needless to say, I had a huge anxiety over it, because I wasn't sure if I was able to do it or not. So I spoke to a couple of friends throughout Long Beach that did murals and just asked them how to do it and, you know, what to expect. And then through a few community meetings, because it had to be like community mural meeting. And so we had like five meetings and various rendition of the rendering of what the wall and what people wanted to see. And then we came up with that image. So the wall is 30 feet by 20 feet, I believe. So it's like a two-story building. And it's pretty wide. And we did that. We completed it about three months. So it's like throughout the whole summer. And that was a very hot summer because the way the sun was setting. And I was like baked there. So it was a really fun experience. Is the wall still up in Long Beach? Yes. The wall is at United Kimberland Community Building, the second one, not the old building. So it's on the corner of Dawson and Anaheim Avenue, right across the street from the May Center. Oh, nice. Yeah, I've heard a lot about the May Center. I haven't got to check it out yet. Oh, by the way, I just brought up the image for the mural. Can I share it? Yeah, definitely. Sure. As you can see, there's a lot of funky things on this wall with lots of windows and wires and, I mean, bars. So I was able to, I don't know, try to overpower that with other images and larger image of Cambodian Apsara Dancer behind it, Ankar Wat, and to the left of it is the Bayon, which typically has four facing, facing north, south, east and west. And the animals at the bottom, by the way, are animals that are being protected or on the edge of extinctions, such as the Ayawadi dolphins, which lived in the Mekong, and they could also go into the salt water and fresh water. Isn't that cool? That is cool. And the elephants and this crane is a specific name for them. It's escaping my mind now. And the turtles, which is very barely visible at the bottom, are the royal turtle. Back in the days, only kings and queens and royal family were able to eat their eggs. I didn't know that. Must be really good eggs. So yeah, so this was the first community wall that we had talked about. You guys have asked about earlier. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, it's a really great wall. Like that whole intersection, that corner is so activated. It's a really active corner off of Anaheim. So I'm wondering, Sayon, how do you approach starting a new creative project? Part depends on what it is. For example, if it's going to be a mural, and if you have to work with businesses or the local area, I tend to ask around if it's public art, just to get people's buy-in. But if I'm doing like my studio work where I have to be more inward or cerebral or something, I would do a little bit more research and do a lot of self-reflection. And that tends to inform a lot of, make my work stronger, I think. And so I'm going to share with you, right now, a video that I have thought about for a long time before I made it. This is one of the piece I did when I was in graduate school. Sorry, it's a little blurry. And it was in a dark room too. It's called Catching Fireflies. And this was at the Huntington Beach Art Gallery, I guess, there. So it's five feet by five feet wide, and it goes all the way up to the ceiling. So everything on this piece is made by my hair. And it's made by hair, glitter, and then glue. So I tied a bunch of my hairs together, and then it made this net. And the idea behind this was, growing up Buddhist, my mom was always pounding on us about doing the right thing, asking for forgiveness, making up for your sins, and then through making up for your sin for the wrong things that you've done, perhaps before you, you know, if you are going to be cast through into hell, there would be the safety net that would catch you and prevent you from falling through. That's beautiful. It's amazing that you're able to make something that reflects that. And it's amazing that it's made out of your hair. Yeah, literally it's just like, got into my head and using my head to create this thing. And even really through the quality of the video, you could still see how shiny and sparkly it is. I can only imagine how you would store that. Is it just completely destroyed now, or do you have it put away? Oh my gosh, I haven't put away. If you saw this thing, you would probably just walk away from it. I was like, what the hell is that? Is that a rat? But yeah, it'll probably come back together once, and this was done in 2007. Yes. Awesome. Has the pandemic affected the way you make art, or have you not been making art, or let making more art since the pandemic? Yeah, this is really anxiety to the max time. So as far as creative mind goes and generating new ideas, I'm a little bit interrupted, to be honest, in that area, but I'm building on previous body of work that I started a couple years ago. So I'm just going to expand on that and continue to make, but it's really a slow process right now. Yeah. Awesome, thank you. Are there any Cambodian artists you want to shout out? So let's see, a filmmaker, you know, Katie So, she's also directing the Cambodian Town Film Festival co-director, co-founder. So she's amazing. She's amazing in making the film, as well as the community work here in Long Beach. A few other folks. Couple rappers, CS, you know, he's also a wonderful rapper, pretty much the same age as me, probably a few years younger, but we met a couple years ago when he volunteered for to help us organize the Beach Roots. Beach Roots was this community folks that grew up in Long Beach, or people that connects to Long Beach, and then they would do like a performance. It was like a music performance. We had a very diverse group that performed for a couple years, and it was free to the public. So he helped really organize that as well. Yeah, I didn't know there was a Cambodian Film Festival in Long Beach, and that's awesome. And I didn't know about that other event. You're involved in a lot of stuff, which brings me to my next question. I had a question about the Ghost Art Project. Oh, cool. You created a project called Ghost, and can you tell us a little bit about that project? Yes, yes. Before I go on the Cambodian Town Film Festival, by the way, it's open to everybody just because it has Cambodian, you know, title on it. It does not mean it's exclusive. So if anyone, it usually happens yearly, and if anyone is connected to that project, you can enter your film and submit that to be viewed, by the way. So... It's a great way to collaborate with other people in the community. So yes, the Ghost Project, you know, it was founded by this lady, Denise God, when I got out of graduate school in 2008, or 2007, and then when she approached me, and we just had started becoming friends, and she said, you know, I'm doing this project in Cambodia, and we... Oh, that's right. Originally, it started off as a global hybrid. That's where the interchangeable happened, and so we wanted to encourage Cambodian artists over there, and Korean artists, and perhaps artists that lived in Asia to work together. And plus, we wanted to do that because a lot of the artists were killed off in Cambodia, so we wanted to, I guess, revitalize that again, and encourage people to make work, and she would give our own money as stipends for folks to buy materials and things like that over there, because honestly, when you're in a third-world country, you don't want to be making art, you know, when you don't even get paid for it, right? People need to pay for materials, their time, and so... And that was 2008, and... But I was really hesitant at first because of the history that I had to share with you all earlier, and why the hell would I go back to a country that was trying to kill me, but I'm glad I went back and was able to face my own fear, and to be able to connect with the growth in the early times in 2008, but I went back again last year, so it was like roughly 10 years later, and to see how much growth has happened, so... Awesome, thank you for sharing that. Do you have any plans to continue the ghost project? If I did, I think it would have to either just expand and change the title or something. It... Yeah, just the word ghost in it or something just takes us into a different realm, and yeah, and I... Yeah, I wanted a little bit of something more exciting to do, if we're going to go that direction again. Yeah, you did mention the global hybrids, and I had a question about that. What piece of art did you exchange, and why did you choose that particular piece? Because I believe you also participated in it, correct? I did, it's... So Denise, she's also an artist when she did that, so we both participated as artists, and as well as bringing local people there together, and that was when we had a show in Cambodia, and then we would bring it here to Long Beach as well, so we had it at the Second City Art Council at the time, it was off of Alamitos years ago, and then we had it again at Hancock University, which is on the corner of 15th and Long Beach Boulevard. I don't know, it's a weird building now, I don't know if they're using it anymore, but I took... So another thing was we had to be able to make sure it was portable, right? We had to make sure, because we were traveling and we didn't want to care all these paintings or whatever, bulky things with us, and back at that time Cambodia wasn't really prepared, you know, they didn't even have materials much to hang things, kind of, so... But I took that hanging sculpture that I just shared with you all, because I really just folded up, and I got there, I just kind of unpacked the hair and glitter. Yeah, I'm sure it would have been funny if customs opened it up, they're like, what is this? So earlier you mentioned that you're affiliated with the United Cambodian community, can you explain what that is and how you got involved with that initially? Yes, I'd be happy to, so I was brought in to lead the Living Arts Long Beach program, which is an after-school art class for local Long Beach students, and so I really enjoyed it, you know, I really put... I was only there like 15 hours a week that time, but I'm sure I must have worked 60 because I had no idea what I was getting into, and then I had to start this program and then recruit students, connect with school, local schools, and then at that time we were... We just really had like a shoestring budget to work with too, so... Yeah, it was just a lot of work, and I think now the amount of support and we get from the Arts Council of Long Beach and then the LA Arts Commission as well, so that has really helped. Awesome. What is the mission of the program Living Arts Long Beach, and what are some of the things that the students would normally do? So the mission is to mentor a student about how to become an artist and what's involved in being an artist, having, say, a portfolio, a lot of these are high school. Some of them do come from Renaissance high school, so they have a lot of art making already, and some of the other students come from like an AP art class in their high school, and so they are pretty equipped already, but we also guide them in college direction as well, so they really just get our hands on in doing a variety of workshops with the guest artists that come in, like we've had a silk screening workshop, and we had animation, we had traditional drawing and painting class, and we even had, when we were meeting in person, a dancing class with Cambodian traditional classical dance. That's like a lot, those are great opportunities. It's like everywhere, yes. I got into screen printing, you know, community college and... Oh, speaking of that, I learned this. See, it's like, oh, now I learn how to make my own screen print as whatever t-shirts I want. That's awesome. Yeah, like the whole time I've been trying to read your whole t-shirt, because I could only see a section, and all I could see was art, and I thought, okay, but there's more, I figured eventually I'd be able to catch it. I need some more back, too. I don't have enough back back there. Yeah, I mean, it does, it really does. Yeah, you guys, UCC is definitely providing a really great resource for the community. How important do you think the act of self-expression is for the youth and for the elders as well? I think it's very important. I think partly, for me as well, you know, growing up, depending on the environment that you grew up in, there could be a lot of prevention from expressing oneself, and especially growing up in, say, a male dominant household. That could also be a lot of censorship, as well as creative or individual expression. I have done this as well in the community, using art to talk about genocide and difficult traumatic situations, and how many people that have gone through trauma, perhaps does not know how to talk about it, or keeping it within themselves to protect their family, or not wanting to relive that situation again without proper guidance. They could also go into re-traumatizing themselves. I went through mental health training, first aid training, so I was able to recognize some of these triggering signs to be able to direct people and to use art to help them to talk about what they went through. A lot of times, it's not your fault. Things, circumstances, and the situation are just done to you, and then once they get a reflection on that, and I've seen positive results. A lot of my work, as well, I've seen that, and I use that as my own healing. Great. I'm glad you mentioned that, because the next question was, basically, do you have any experiences or stories from Living Arts Long Beach that you'd like to share, or from UCC that you'd like to share? Something that might be something that really maybe triggered something within you, or that you really appreciated, or you took away something from? Yeah. There are a lot within the milieu of the culture. We have our own culture of how people function. People may say, you can't do that, or you're this way, or that way, because they have brought a certain way of thinking with them, and that used to be triggering for me. At one point, it would really shut me down, and it would trigger this really deep anger in me, because, especially when you're working with the public and the community, you get all kinds of folks, but you have to check yourself before you wreck yourselves. You have to really be able to manage your emotions, as well as and see where people are at. People are coming through, and they have their own challenges, and I was able to learn to recognize that. That's one example, especially with the older generation. Even people of my age that has grown up in Long Beach, that had gone through the gang environment, and growing up in the hood, is what I tend to say with them. Then we came out of that. We are struggling with that, and I think a lot of us have started to lift each other up and embracing each other's greatness. If you start to hate others, you really have to start to look in yourself, and why you're doing that, because you've got to love yourself before you can open up to love others. Definitely. It's a great story. I really appreciate that. Thanks for sharing that. It's a very precious thing to hear. Living Arts, Long Beach has worked with the Long Beach Public Library. Do you think it's important for local institutions and communities to collaborate with each other? Yeah, yes. Definitely very important. The more I share about the local libraries and the resources that you all have, especially with the studio. Is that the right name? The studio with all your equipment that you all have, your computer, your music making, your green screen. I share that whenever I meet other artists, professional artists, kids, just let them know that there's free resources out there. Not only that, that it's out there, but it's also showing support to each organization that we work with. I think even within UCC community, we have other Cambodian organizations, but we all have specific services that is for the community. Ultimately, we want to serve the community. Yes, sometimes we apply for the same grant or pots of grants out there and it's limited, but at the end of the day, we are out there to help the community and just to make their lives better. Definitely. Has working for Living Arts, Long Beach and the youth in general, has that influenced you as an artist in any way? Let's see. I don't know if it influenced me as an artist. It does make me want to see how effective I am with them. I want to be a good resource. I want to be able to direct them the right way, give them the best advice I can depending on their needs. As far as the artist part, I think that's in my own world, but the Living Arts one is for the kids or working with other artists. That's great that you're able to separate the two and be distinctive between what drives your art and what drives you to give back to the community because I could see where one might not influence the other, but you're still able to juggle both realms and continue to contribute to both platforms. There's something there when you're able to prioritize your art and prioritize your community. I don't know what to say other than props. It's good that you don't let them cross over into one another. Yeah, I think it's important to note that when people are in a teacher role and then when they go home, they become a parent role, you really have to learn. You can't assume that that person is the same throughout. If I'm somebody's supervisor, then during work time, I'm your supervisor. When I go out on the street or we're off the clock, now we're friends, you don't need to report to me or anything. I think it's important to keep that distinction. Speaking of going out into the streets, what's your favorite mural in Long Beach? Gosh, I saw that question go by and I'm torn. Honestly, I really enjoy it. I know you're probably thinking this is, yeah, of course, but David Van Patten's mural is awesome. I mean, he has this style of, what's the word? It's like Dreamlight State. It's a combination of a visual image and kind of turning things upside down on its head, which I like. Also, you can tell when it's his mural throughout Long Beach. But then when I go to, there's a place near Junipero and Broadway. I don't remember that. It looks like it's a picture of this huge girl and she looks like she's hypnotized. Yeah. I was just going to say, yeah, that's on the side of a salon and Broadway. Yeah. There's all these geometric patterns, right? Right. Yeah, that's a great one. I saw that and then there's a few other ones I've seen in downtown Long Beach, too. So I like them. I guess, I don't have a favorite one, but I think there's really good ones and there are some bad ones out there. That's great. Yeah, that's honest. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that mural you mentioned on the side of the salon, I actually helped paint that and drive the lift with the artist. So I have a personal attachment to it. So I'm kind of pumped that you actually mentioned that one. Cool. Yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, that's where that one is. And it's bigger than I thought, you know? Good thing he didn't roast you already. Good thing he wasn't like, you know what? I don't have any favorite murals, but I wanted to list the ones that I don't like. No, maybe off camera now. Yeah, there's so much art in Long Beach where there's bound to be some bad art, for sure. How about more general, like what are your favorite places in Long Beach? Whether it's drop food, parks? Let's see, some favorite places. I really enjoy people watching. You know, especially hanging out in Coffee House, there are a lot of interesting characters. People look all decked up or they just look like they're homeless, but they're like, probably millinaires. You know? Yeah. So some of them are like, the portfolio is good. Venta y Agua, when it was open, it was good. They're still open for like seven to one, though. And I really enjoy going to bars, happy hours. You know, like Joe Jals is fun to hang out. And some of the Cambodian restaurants, Crystal is really a hole in the wall, but their food is awesome. I'm near Orange and 10th Street, right there. And Plum Pen Noodle, which is a mom-and-pop place as well, family-owned. It's like on the corner of 15th Street and Cherry Avenue. So that's a really small place too, but there's a lot of gems in Long Beach. Although I used to enjoy going to 2nd Street, you know, Belmont Shores. It seems so sterile now. I know, is it just me? I've driven by there. There's still people partying at Panama Joes. But yeah, it's a bummer to see everything shut down. You know, I used to, I miss, like, the Summertime's on Long Beach for my favorite time. You know, 2nd Street, they had the Strone Saver, and then they had the movies on the beach in different locations, and then all the great music events and all the local bars, for sure. Yeah, I think a lot of the hotspots, I think a lot of the hotspots have lost their vibrance that used to be there. It's just, you know, things are kind of in limbo still. So it's not what it used to be because things are not what they used to be. So, you know, it is what it is now. But I think that's what kind of maybe challenges us to actually notice some of the nuances that are there during this weird time, because we have to seek it out, because we're not getting what we used to. But there's still little pieces and fragments of it there, I think. I guess it just depends on how you perceive it. But we're almost towards the end, Seon. So I do have a question. What would you like to see happen within the art community in Long Beach? Wow, that's like a loaded question, I think. You know, it's like a, I would really love to see the art community in Long Beach be like a model where Culver City is happening, although that it would take the money to do that, as well as the galleries and investment to come in. And it would also take people spending more money here locally too, to help support the artist. But, you know, I don't know if you guys have heard about the compound Long Beach. That's awesome new place that's happening almost on the corner of, it's on Coronado and Anaheim, just go north a little bit. So that's an amazing place. I've worked with them and they were, you know, they just did a soft opening where we're just going to be in person. But they feature my work. And so kudos to them. It's compound lb.com. If you guys want to look that up. But they're not just that they're featuring my work, but they're just amazing people and very inclusive. But they also want to include local artists, but they also want to emphasize quality, right? So yeah, usually also at the end, we usually ask people if they have a platform they'd like to share so that people can find you online. Do you have an online presence that you'd like to let people know about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you guys want to follow me on Instagram, I am at Sayon Art, it's S-A-Y-O-N Art on Instagram. And then my full name is Sayon Cypershooth on Facebook. I don't do too much on the other one. So but yeah, I mean, connect with me, chit chat about collaborating and doing various projects. And I'm working on a community mural again coming up and hopefully next within this next two months. Yeah, we'll see. I'm excited to see what you do with the compounds. It's unfortunate that like the pandemic kind of coincided with, you know, their opening. But I'm looking forward to seeing it in person one day or even online when they post photos of it. But thank you for sharing your time. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for hanging out with us today, Sayon. I know you have a busy schedule, so it's great to have you on the web chat Wednesdays. Thanks Chris and Artie and Ryan behind the scene. It's great sharing. Thank you all for listening to my story and about my work.