HOUSTON — This month, KHOU 11 News shares stories highlighting Asian-American heritage and culture.
Wednesday's focus is on Thomas Tran, an artist from Alief who's the creator of an amazing mural in Asiatown, among other special works of art.
Whether it's a comic, an illustration or a mural, Tran said he uses his art to tell a story to remind him of what he was thinking at the time he created it.
He says his colorful murals are journalistic.
"I'll put that all on the page. It'll be, for me, a little time capsule of those last few months ... tells me where my head was at," Tran said.
Tran said he's proud to be from Alief -- an ethnically diverse community in southwest Houston where minorities are the majority.
"I'm a Vietnamese-American, first-generation -- parents were immigrants and came over. That's the story for a lot of kids in that area," he said.
Two of Tran's murals are on display on Bellaire Boulevard in Asiatown. He said his goal with the works of art was to reflect the community, but when he looks at the murals, he thinks about how the community banded together to make it happen -- something he said he's witnessed in Alief his whole life.
"I think because of that, kids come out a lot more open-minded because they have friends who are a completely different culture than them but they love their friends," he said.
Tran said he hopes other up-and-coming artists in Alief see his bright, bold work and realize it's something they can do, too.