Creative Concepts
Looking back over my career as an artist, I realize
that when I was starting out as a printmaker, I relied in some
instances on experimentation to generate the ideas that informed
my works. Concepts, forms and techniques were all outgrowths
of a process of trial and error. In other instances, however,
the works were concept-driven. By comparing and analyzing the
different approaches, I came up with new concepts and forms.
My prints, in general, tend to consist of a small number of abstract
forms, mostly either geometric or organic, and the effect of many
of my works depends on the interplay of these two basic forms.
Over the years, the number, size and proportion of organic and
geometric forms have changed. The earlier works show a preference
for organic over geometric forms, but there are geometric forms
concealed within the organic forms. In the later works, geometric
forms dominate. This particular evolution reflects the way in
which material objects, which I associate with geometric form,
gradually came to overshadow subjective, emotional concerns, represented
by organic forms.
Once I switched from printmaking to mixed media art,
my work tended to take on the qualities of mixed media painting.
In fact, I had started to explore this particular type of art
back in 1978, when I was making my first prints. This is why
my early mixed media works, like my prints, feature a blending
of geometric and organic forms. They also incorporate pieces
of old metal etching plates used in printmaking. I continued
to work in this vein up until ten years ago, when I decided to
devote myself exclusively to mixed media art. But even so, I
have continued to rely on the same analytical technique of juxtaposing
geometric and organic forms as a means of solving problems and
clarifying the meaning of my work.
Having been born and raised in Bangkok, an urban environment,
elements of the material world, consumerism and modern technology
have had an impact on my life and become an integral part of my
everyday routine. I have been shaped by my experience of struggling
in a modern urban society, and this experience has inspired the
concepts that inform my work. The tension between materialism
and spirituality, the concrete and the subjective, a theme derived
from my experiences of life in Bangkok, has been the subject of
my work from the very beginning. This theme is colored by my
own distinct personality and by my love of simplicity and reflection.
My art has always been a record of my life experiences, reflecting
the environment in which I live and my love of nature. Another
key influence on my life and my work as an artist is Buddhism.
Buddhism has taught me how to live; it has taught me the difference
between right and wrong, and it has shown me the importance of
detachment and letting go. My Buddhist faith has led me along
a solitary path to purity. From all of these influences, I have
distilled the essence of my experiences to find artistic inspiration.
As a result, I have adopted a simple, uncluttered abstract style
with the fewest number of forms necessary to convey my concepts.
For over twenty years I used my experiences as the
basis for prints. Once I had exhausted the possibilities of the
printmaking medium, I turned to mixed media art, through which
I felt I could express the changes in my ways of thinking and
feeling. But from the very start of my career, whether I was
making prints, watercolors or mixed media art, my work has been
an abstract dialogue between geometric forms, which represent
the world of objects, logic and scientific law, and organic forms,
symbols of life, subjectivity, and emotion. In some of the phases
of my career, geometric forms have had the upper hand, while
at other times, organic forms have tended to dominate. Overall,
the fluctuation between varying forms points to an attempt to
achieve a balanced outlook on life. It is an attempt that all
of us must make, for if one side overpowers the other, we forfeit
the possibility of a happy life.