We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bao Pham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bao, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I first came back from tripping in Europe I was fully convinced that I wanted to create something even if I didn’t go to art school.

Wandering the streets of Berlin, Amsterdam, or Barcelona where you can’t help but see dope graffiti every where, actually inspired me to want to learn more about the culture. Learning about tags and pieces came much later which gave me even more motivation to want to learn.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I never knew I was going to end up doing graffiti and then becoming an artist, it just kinda happened organically.

I was throwing shows with bands and comedians at the time and always wanted to add the graffiti aspect to doing things because it was the one thing I didn’t see at any festivals in Houston.

What was at the time called, “The Generators Playground” was a moving art, music, film, comedy, micro festival that would pop up anywhere or anytime with a generator and fellow DIY participants to throw events. We made history for the Houston underground scene during that time and many artist got their start working with fellow creatives.

Which then lead me to having graffiti artist come and paint my events and showed me how to navigate things my own way as far as making business moves.

I came from the cannibus industry at first back in the day and it helped me net work in a whole different way when it came to promoting my business.

Now-a-days I’m refocusing my brand to becoming “pangea project”, which is basically a moving art gallery with my school bus that promotes local artist that paint onto it by day so that it can be projection mapped by night an post up anywhere.

I’d like to raise money towards collaborative pieces from different countries that would eventually return back to Houston and auctioned off for war reliefs like Palestine, or the Congo etc.

The theme of pangea project is; what if the world lived as one? No more borders of separation and equality for everyone.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most realistic way of putting it would be the feeling of making money from doing something I loved on my own terms.

Not conforming to anyone’s expectations of what I was supposed to be, and becoming the truest version of myself. That is of which I find to be the most important thing to living, which is freedom.

I like to take my freedom where I can find it and if I can avoid taking freedom from someone else then even better. The flow of paint moving through a spray can at my fingertips can sometimes be better than sex. I mean given the right circumstances and settings and how you weigh out your options I think graffiti bombing is a high within itself that’s full of endorphins. And yet at the same time the adrenaline sobers you up.

It’s like skateboarding or skydiving or any other obscure art form you can think of just pops up at you and you cling to it. There’s that sense of freedom behind it all when you start facing your fears.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

At the moment I have been working with my friends from, “art in the heart” and “Htx art studios” to teach kids and adults of all ages, how to use spray paint with my can control classes, there’s a graffiti garden for the public located at 8321 Jensen Dr. and we are constantly doing community outreach programs and informing the neighborhood of our resources.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Baoism1