# Tidawhitney Lek | Friday Heaters Podcast🔥 Episode 12

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/friday-heaters-podcast-7658615/tidawhitney-lek-friday-heaters-podcast-episode-12
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/friday-heaters-podcast-7658615/tidawhitney-lek-friday-heaters-podcast-episode-12.md
Podcast: [Friday Heaters Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/friday-heaters-podcast-7658615)
Published: 2026-05-19T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/999ba101
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/999ba101/c6356b3d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/friday-heaters-podcast-7658615/episodes/tidawhitney-lek-friday-heaters-podcast-episode-12
Duration seconds: 3646

## Resource

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with painter, Tidawhitney Lek, to talk about the path from working art jobs in Los Angeles to fully committing to her own painting practice. Tida reflects on growing up in Long Beach in a Cambodian family shaped by the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, and how those experiences eventually found their way into her work through family narratives, domestic spaces, memory, and identity. We discuss the moment she quit working side jobs, surviving the uncertainty of the early years, and how a series of studio visits and chance encounters helped launch her career during the pandemic-era art boom. Tida also breaks down her painting process, balancing practicality with experimentation, the influence of artists like Kerry James Marshall and Amir Fallah, and where she sees her work evolving next as she prepares for upcoming projects with Night Gallery and Victoria Miro.

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## Transcript

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