About Apollo GT / Website >>>

About me:

Apollo GT is my stage name, where GT is short for Giang Tran and Apollo is translated from my spiritual name Dai Duong Thai which meant Guardian of the Sun. I like Apollo GT; it sounds like a car.

Now that is out of the way, I would like to tell you how I got here, the United States of America that is (not my Cyber studio). I was born in Saigon, Viet Nam, in 1969. Yep, in the year men went to the moon I learnt for the first time how to breathe on Earth. Surviving the Viet Nam War, I went through many changes along with the country. After my mother’s death in 1980, I left the country as one of the boat people. With all the blessing, I made it to the Indonesia Island with the help of strangers on the sea. They rescued me along with many others from our leaf-like boat and carried us on their oil tank and later on smaller ships to the island where I spent for four months before being accepted into America.

Arriving in Virginia, I was overwhelmed with new possibilities but didn’t know what I would be doing. I knew only that I loved art and already had the skill in pastel painting. It was 1981, a new life for me but still with siblings who controlled me just like the communists from the old world. I studied hard and graduated high school and find myself pursuing an art major. I went to college and majored in photography. During my second year there I started studying computer graphics and it was to me a new way of expressing myself artistically. Computer, if wasn’t art, is a tool for me just like a camera and a brush. Graduating with a BFA in photography in 1994, I have now the skills of computer graphics and still do my paintings with pastel. I am now on my own to stand my ground with the talents I have.

Most of the time my pastels were done on a dinner table or on the floor. Money was tight and no one cared for my pastel work, though I did some commission works during my high school year. To do an art show was nearly impossible. I tried but the space in this life was limiting it. Hopefully that will change.

After college, I was searching around for acting and modeling agencies. What I found was mostly scams. It was disappointing! Even so, I have done some modeling work on my own and also acting in local films for festivals and tv. With the ability to learn fast, I got myself to where I am today. Though the road still stretches out into the far distance, I know I am not walking it alone.

About this site: ApolloGT.com or ApolloGT-Studio.com

Here, you will get to see my artwork: pastel paintings, photography, digital arts, illustrations / designs, and poetry. I hope you will enjoy the site and if you have any comment or question, please email me. If you can be a sponsor to help keep this site free for viewing, your effort will be greatly appreciated by me, other viewers, and the models on my site. If you would like to use an image from this site on your site, please contact me for approval, depending on the use and the content of your site.

AMM (Apollo Male Models) was an online magazine for three years and now it is available in print, dedicated to help the struggling new male models/actors get noticed and stay healthy as they work in this industry. Let&srquo;s make it drug free and yet productive for most if not all of us.

All images, videos, and texts on this site are copyrighted © 1984 - 2008 Apollo GT (Giang Tran).