MaMyat Win:
My name is MaMyat. And I’m from Myanmar. I came to America when I was 17, and I go to Stitch for this year.

When I was 16, when I live in Thailand, I learned about stitching for three months. I came to America. I never learned stitch again, and stay home for six years, and I started for stitching for this this year. And I remember when I lived in my country, I learned only three months, but I never forget it, to learn this, and I started stitching again. And whatever I like I draw and I stitch, draw and stitch like that.  

I stay home for a long, long a year, and my neighbor—she told me, you want to go to Stitch. “Where?” I say, “Where? I want to go, too.” I want, I want to go, too. And she told me—she told me the address, and I told my sister to send me there. My sister sent me, and I start to stitch, until right now.

I do embroidery. My brother do it in tattoo, only two. My older sister, brother not do it. My younger brother, he tried it. He draw a dog. He said, “Eh, it's not dog. It's a spider.”

When we was young, my mother told us your grandfather is painting. He paint—he painted for temples. They are a Buddha because they have a story. That story he painted and write it out and he painted and write it out, like that. And my mother showed me when my grandfather painted. I said, “Oh, that's beautiful. I want to try to. I want to learn it.”

My brother he started to draw a picture. And he like to do a tattoo. And he start to learn it. And the first he do a tattoo, he practiced on my sister's body. My sister—and then my sister, “It so hurt!”  

When I was young, when I was little they didn’t have a machine tattoo, right? They have a long needle like this. Too long. They have to do it like this. I say, “Oh, that's so scary.” My uncle told me, “Do you want to try it?” No, no, that's too long.

My brother started to do tattoo when he was 14. Right now he is 25. He want to learn it. He want to do that. He do it all day. He feeling tired and in pain, but he like. He want to do that. He loves it, whatever pain or hurt is gone. If it's something you like, you're feeling nothing. If you don't like it, you’re feeling pain.  

Sometimes I'm staying home, I feel like I have nothing, and I'm stitching flower, and I I'm thinking, “What do I have to do this day, to make it a flower, to make it a bird. . .”—I'm just thinking this all day. I love that. I'm happy. I feel like that's my job. I like to do this. I do it.