We sat down with our very own Vi Luong (also known as Mister Vi on instagram) for a Q&A about art, Brooklyn, and of course Luci.
Let's start at the beginning. When did you start drawing?
I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember. I used to draw on the walls of our house as a three-year-old with crayons and markers. I moved to New York after studying in Austin and worked as a graphic designer and art director. Art was always a natural part of the day job but it wasn't until recently did I devote more time to drawing.
A few years ago, I started a 1,011 drawing project on Instagram as a way to get back into practice.
How would you describe your style of work?
My style can probably be summed up as pen and ink meets mild OCD. I love the simplicity of drawing in ink and the challenge of rendering fine detail with a single medium. Architecture and New York City are my go-to subjects. Naturally, because I live here and there’s never a shortage of great subject matter here.
Give us some background on how you came to be connected with MPOWERD and this Artist Series Luci?
I was introduced to MPOWERD through a friend who knew the co-founder. I loved the mission behind what they do and wanted to be a part of it in some way. As an artist and designer, I’ve always looked for ways I could utilize my skills to make a positive impact so I took a job at the company. In November 2016, I traveled to Nepal with one of their NGO partners, Kids of Kathmandu, to distribute Luci lights to school children in the remote mountain village of Kavre. Seeing what a difference a simple thing like light can make in their lives was for me also life-changing.
When we returned, we wanted to find a creative way to bring awareness to this group and also the larger problem of a lack of adequate light in many parts of the world. So the Artist Series was conceived as a way to offer a blank canvas to use art as a way to ‘highlight’ this important issue. I am thrilled to be the first artist to launch this new collaboration series.
What inspired the artwork you chose to put on the Luci?
Another reason we went to Nepal was to help open one of the first schools that Kids of Kathmandu rebuilt after the earthquake of 2015. We used 1,000 Luci lights to literally light up the school for a surprise. In between setting up, I would draw with some of the kids in the village. They barely spoke English and I spoke 2 words of Nepalese, yet we bonded over a sketchpad and a pen.
So when I thought about what I wanted this Luci to be, I decided it would be sharing a piece of home. That home for me has been Brooklyn for the past 10 years. No other place has inspired me as an artist. It’s always changing but there’s so much rich history at every other corner.
Any thoughts on the finished work?
I’m pretty excited about how the Luci turned out. Getting to completely design it the way I wanted including the box was very cool. My art director side really geeked out on the spot UV printing on the interior side of the box.
What's next on the horizon in terms of projects?
I’m currently wrapping up my Instagram project I began 3 years ago to make 1,011 drawings. It all started as a way to get back into drawing daily and now has grown into a community of other illustrators and artists that I’ve become virtual friends with and we often like and comment on each other’s work for encouragement. When it's all done, I think I’ll take a short break and maybe start another 1,000 drawings. It's been too rewarding an experience to stop now.
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Purchase the Mister Vi Artist Series here.
