cat pham

Boos. (at Morgan MFG.) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqPpmAiFpsX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8fq2u6kh2qhv

happiry harroween, from every asian woman’s inner rageful tiger assassin self, and her deadly friends. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfwQ3jHwt6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=58fm0w9vad0x

happiry harroween, from every asian woman’s inner rageful tiger assassin self. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfvZb0nRXw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1d7lw7ydcdcnc

Squad. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfvS-pnknx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gzv17u6j77ys

Parties at the kitty casa are about to get a little bit more fun. 🎱 https://www.instagram.com/p/BoCKFXggcB4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1g30dqrd94v4r

A love letter to a man I used to love- I met you when I was a wee 21 year old, you taught me how to drink wine, always bought me the shoes I wanted, and never let me get away with being a shithead. You always expected me to hold you to the highest standard, as well as every guy who came after you. You helped me understand that there are more ways to love someone than just romantically, as you’ve been there for me through thick and thin. You have been one of my best friends for a decade, and you were even a shoulder for Justin to lean on when I couldn’t be there for him. You are the embodiment of a gentleman, and yesterday, I witnessed you marry the most gracious woman. Seeing you in love is the most incredible thing, because I know what it feels like to just be loved by you. I’m gonna be upset at you for awhile for breaking our marriage pact, but I really can’t fault Jackie for trapping your ass. The best of wishes to you both as you continue your journey to ever after. Nik and Jackie, I love you both, forever and always. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnz9WJHgYte/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=u1nnj127cbs8

A love letter to a man I used to love- I met you when I was a wee 21 year old, you taught me how to drink wine, always bought me the shoes I wanted, and never let me get away with being a shithead. You always expected me to hold you to the highest standard, as well as every guy who came after you. You helped me understand that there are more ways to love someone than just romantically, as you’ve been there for me through thick and thin. You have been one of my best friends for a decade, and you were even a shoulder for Justin to lean on when I couldn’t be there for him. You are the embodiment of a gentleman, and yesterday, I witnessed you marry the most gracious woman. Seeing you in love is the most incredible thing, because I know what it feels like to just be loved by you. I’m gonna be upset at you for awhile for breaking our marriage pact, but I really can’t fault Jackie for trapping your ass. The best of wishes to you both as you continue your journey to ever after. Nik and Jackie, I love you both, forever and always. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnz9RDSglgM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=y2zlf3q0fa3g

A love letter to a man I used to love- I met you when I was a wee 21 year old, you taught me how to drink wine, always bought me the shoes I wanted, and never let me get away with being a shithead. You always expected me to hold you to the highest standard, as well as every guy who came after you. You helped me understand that there are more ways to love someone than just romantically, as you’ve been there for me through thick and thin. You have been one of my best friends for a decade, and you were even a shoulder for Justin to lean on when I couldn’t be there for him. You are the embodiment of a gentleman, and yesterday, I witnessed you marry the most gracious woman. Seeing you in love is the most incredible thing, because I know what it feels like to just be loved by you. I’m gonna be upset at you for awhile for breaking our marriage pact, but I really can’t fault Jackie for trapping your ass. The best of wishes to you both as you continue your journey to ever after. Nik and Jackie, I love you both, forever and always. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnz87d-AShg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yc2bdgh3p3xm

Looking forward to breaking in another pair of Mocs. Not looking forward to leaving this face. #redwingheritage #redwingheritagewomen #catmom #catsofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BnrXkj6FtyA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15y1suv7nt1ob

I’m being super vain this Vegas and I don’t give a damn about it.

When you’re an immigrant or refugee, you don’t have family reunions every summer. You might live your entire life not knowing who your cousins are. You know of them, their names, you know they exist, but the opportunity to get to know them doesn’t come easily. I’m grateful to have been able to go home to Vietnam twice, to have met Mama Pham’s brothers and sisters one of those times, but the last time I saw my Di Be and Em Hung, was 17 years ago. My cousin Hung was 3 years old. And here we are today, me speaking to him in Vietnamese, him speaking to me in English, exploring the city I grew up in, and I get to see my mom be a big sister. It’s fucking amazing.

Too often we are told that we can’t, and too often we believe it ourselves. Our capabilities are questioned and therefore we question our abilities. As a young Vietnamese girl, within my own culture, I was raised to believe in very specific roles for women and men, and growing up in this society, I have faced the challenges, the negativity, the fetishization, sexualization, and disrespect that comes with the territory of being a woman. I have taken a lot of leaps and risks in my life, with love, with work, but the biggest challenge I have faced is allowing myself to be more than I have been told. To break out of the mold that my culture and society has tried to make me fit into, and create one that I feel I can fit into, but also grow out of. For a really long time, I was so stuck in the belief that there were a lot of things I just couldn’t do- because I was told I couldn’t, because people who look like me didn’t do those things, and because there was not a space available for me to even try. Fuck all of that. I am grateful for a teacher and a partner who has helped create a space for my explorations. I am grateful that my friends have given me the space to share myself as I discover myself. And for every belief that I possessed that I couldn’t do something, it is a conscious effort every day to change the language that I use to speak to myself. Instead of “I can’t,” I ask myself why I can’t, and most of the time, I discover that I just can’t do it in the same way other folks do things, but I can create my own way. Confidence in yourself is a hell of a drug, and I am so glad I took a sip of that tea. • • • • • #artist #designer #metalwork #womenwhowork #redwingheritage #redwingheritagewoman #asianamerican #asianamericanwoman #representation #representationmatters (at Mass Jones Studio)

My Loves, the latest from @massjonesstudio, a hand carved steel skull sculpture, commissioned for a private residence. I wanted to give him braces or at least a retainer to wear at night, but that didn’t make it to the final design. 🙃 • • • • • #skull #sculpture #art #design #interiordesign #metal #metalwork #steel #patina (at McLean, Virginia)

This is what a metal worker looks like. She can be Asian. She can be 4’11. She can wear heels and lipstick. Representation fucking matters because even when I’m in my coveralls, the assumption is that I’m not capable. And while I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, I need to be visible, so that my nieces can grow up knowing they can be whatever they want to be. So that other little Asian girls can know that their only option isn’t to be doctors or lawyers. They can be artists, they can get dirty, they can also work in fashion, they can wear lipstick, and they can love Hello Kitty.

Striving to be my best self every day.

Thank you for the words of encouragement, for listening, for coming to pho feast on a hot ass day, for the well wishes, the hugs, and the love. I feel alive, I feel incredibly loved, and I am so grateful to share this life with everyone in it. I hope your tummies were as full as my heart. AND HELLO KITTY CAME TO MY PARTY AND I AM LIVING MY BEST LIFE AND THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO SHARE THAT WITH YOU.

I found it incredibly difficult this last week to cope. To cope with my darkness and what it does to me and the people around me. The fears that come with it. The question of, “Will I make it through this week?” I watched and read how the deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain affected the people around them, the people around me, and I felt that wave of sadness and hope that they have found their peace. I thought about the creative process and both the turmoils and successes that come of it. I thought about how terrifying it is when you cannot and do not see an end to the turmoil, and when the best option in your mind, is for the pain to end. I think about death daily. My death. When my anxiety presents itself as paranoia, I honestly believe I am going to die, but not by my own hands. I have survived that, and in my own personal experience of it, I know that it was not the way for my pain to end. It has been a 12 long years of clinical therapy, art therapy, and medication. And in the last 6 months, I have begun to experience the breakthroughs. Working through my trauma and disassociation is a fucking shitty, painful road. Understanding the lapses in memory, why and what I repressed, the black outs- seeing yourself at your worst in order to try to be your best is the hardest thing I have ever done and there are days it defeats me. Tomorrow, I enter into my 32nd year of life without knowing what the following days, months, and years hold. But tomorrow is always an important day to me because I made it to tomorrow. I almost didn’t make it to my 20th birthday. My home has an open door policy. It is a safe space. There is nothing I love more than cooking and sharing a meal with another. Sharing my food with you is how I share myself with you. Your darkness is my darkness and your light is my light. I invite you to have a meal with me if ever you desire. Because if you are reading this, you have saved my life more than you know. Thank you.