We recently connected with Bart Sasam and have shared our conversation below.

Bart, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Thank you so much for having me. 

The most meaningful project to me is the one I’m currently undertaking. That is, to grow a version of art centered around dioramas of real life scenes, that force people to step away from any self-interested views of the world, and instead, be more conscious of everyone and everything around them. I’ve been selling prints of my diorama photos and also aim to continue growing a larger presence digitally on social media and through film.

It’s especially meaningful to me because in this fast-paced world that we live in, we’re constantly told to ‘be yourself, do more for yourself, get more for yourself.’ We call ourselves ‘Queens’ or ‘Kings’. We are forced on the daily to believe that every part of life has to be ‘us or them’. We’re flooded with the notion that the self is the most important part of this world…

But to me, what’s more important is how all these unique and beautiful individuals can live together and for each other.

My goal is really about changing perspective literally and mentally.

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

Simply put, I’m an ordinary person that is hell-bent on getting people to do extra–ordinary things.

I’m a generalist and in that capacity, I’ve lived as a computer engineer, technical intelligence officer, bartender, community outreach director, and currently a growing photographer and filmmaker. I’m extremely lucky to feel like I’ve lived multiple lifetimes. I feel like I’ve grown so much perspective from my experiences, and I want to spread that perspective in everything that I do.

As a photographer, I sell miniaturized scenes of cities that I visit in my travels and of my home, the beautiful Austin, Texas. I’ve been more than ecstatic to know that my work has resonated with so many more people than I initially expected. Not just for the images themselves, but I also have had great conversations about my message. So much so, that I was even invited to be an exhibitor for an Austin Studio Tour event (shout out to stop P70 at Camp East! Thank you!).

As a filmmaker, I focus on projects that get people to do some self-reflection. I have a short film that is currently getting pushed onto the festival circuit for 2024. The screenplay for the film, Pink, was written by my friend Jacquie Ring and when I first read it, I knew I had to work with her. Pink follows a middle-aged woman’s hesitant self-exploration to her prideful self-expression. And I’m so happy that Jacquie allowed me to co-direct it with her and be her cinematographer. We’re also in pre-production on a documentary short about a business in Austin that has withstood the test of time, the pandemic, and an ever-changing culture and population in Austin. I’m excited to bring that project to life.

One thing that I’m most proud of was when I was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for my contributions looking after Community Outreach for the CPU design company that I work for in my day job. Over the span of 6 years, I put in thousands of extra hours to organize volunteering and fundraising events, and I convinced hundreds of colleagues to do the same. From mentoring students with Austin Partners in Education, to being the event chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas’ Bowl4Kids events, to putting together several homes and playgrounds with Austin’s Habitat for Humanity program, to hosting coding and physics workshops for middle schools, and many more, I’m so proud of the impact that we made in the city of Austin.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Two resources immediately come to mind.

The first of which is very likely to have already made its way onto other stories in your magazine: The 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. I kid you not, from the time I came across it in 2013 in Barnes & Noble (and yes I still go to physical book stores!), I treated this book as if it was my very own bible. It completely transformed the way I thought about time as an exceptionally finite resource. Being a first-generation Asian American, this isn’t a topic that I was exposed to growing up. The only thing that was driven to me and my siblings growing up was work hard. Work hard. And work harder. Tim Ferriss’s book exposed me to ways that could maximize all that hard work that I put in. The book covers principles and practices about the tradeoffs and delicate balance of the often-chased – efficiency – and the lesser-sought-after but probably more important – effectiveness. By integrating these principles and practices and simple goal-making into everything I did, I feel that my reach and impact over these years were exponentially greater than what could have been. I was even able to have enough control of my time to explore a new vocation every year for the past 5 years – see my blog onejobayear.com. Thank you Mr. Ferriss for teaching me how to define my goals, eliminate wasteful effort, automate where I can, and liberate myself from boredom.

The second one is probably not as well-known or as often quoted, but it impacted me as an individual more than anything I’ve ever heard. The university commencement-speech-turned-video-turned-book “This is Water” by the late David Foster Wallace was the single most impactful resource in my life. It taught me patience. It taught me perspective. It taught me what is possibly the true meaning of an education and maturity: the conscious ability to choose how I feel about everything going on around me.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew how supportive other creatives were. Growing up, I had always done creative things. In middle school, I sold several Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z sketches to my friends. I won Rodeo for Art contests. I won dog drawing contests. I was always writing in my journals. But in the journey to become an engineer and get an ‘adult job’, I lost touch with my creative side.

Then when I thought about pursuing creative outlets again, to say I was intimidated is a severe understatement. I kept marveling at beautiful work from so many talented photographers and filmmakers and I just wasn’t sure where to start or why I should even try.

When I started putting my work out for the public to see, I very quickly found out how great of a resource the artist community is in itself. People were so quick to give tips and so quick to offer opportunities for me to share my work. As an artist, a platform is so important, and just through simple conversations, I was able to find multiple platforms to showcase my work in my first year.

I hope I can (and I hope I already have) provide the same support to more new artists or anyone looking to rediscover their creative side.

Contact Info:

• Website: onejobayear.com | bjscreative.com
• Instagram: @miniatureatx | @dioramatraveler
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-sasam-39a3b744

Image Credits
These are all my photos