DoOdLeS.

Day four in the cheapest hostel Bangkok has to offer. The wallpaper is in what I like to call ‘hospital colors'(Extremely light pastel green and turquoise) with matching curtains and bed spread of course, A common bathroom shared with the rest of the guests and a sticky floor. I like the sleazy feeling this kind of place gives me, it’s inspiring.. Just imagining what kind of people were in this room before me and what might have happened among these walls is enough to stir up a whole world of  mind visuals to play with. As a figurative 2D artist (at the moment it’s painting and photography) I’m seeking constantly for new material to use for my work. Sometimes it comes naturally and sometimes I get dry and need to force stimulate my uncooperative imagination. I find it interesting to think what situations or which type of places trigger my creative side. Flights for instance: I get excited in this limbo frozen time zone 6000 meters above ground which connects between the old page I’m finishing and the new page I’m opening. These moments are highly emotional and inspiring, so sleeping is impossible (even with Valium). Instead I usually pass my time scribbling in my note book. These are 2 doodles i made on the 11 hour flight from Berlin to Bangkok.

( This one say’s in Thai;  “I’m alergic to peanuts, if i eat them i die!”)

Don-Det :

Between  accidentally taking a big bite out of a honeycomb full of live bees, being attacked by an army of eight year olds who found it extremely amusing to throw seaweed balls from the floor of the river at me and having to fleet from a stampede of racing Buffalo while midnight strolling down a very narrow dirt path, i definitely declare Don-Det island as my favorite place in Laos. it’s one of the more chill and authentic places I’ve been in this country, not much tourist and a very nice easy going island lifestyle. The daily routine pretty much sums up with- being woken early by the screaming cocks,  going for a quick bathe in the Mekong river, drinking a coconut-pineapple-watermelon shake, laying in a hammock and comfortably reading a book all day. Lao people are very slow motion which suits me perfectly, i would say quite the opposite of the fast forward pace back in Germany.

* Its hard to create when your busy absorbing all the time. sometimes while travelling i find it difficult to produce work  because I’m constantly occupied by seeing hearing and smelling new things, meeting new people going through good, bad, happy sad experiences and feeling foreign feelings. Its totally inspiring though also very exhausting. Sometimes a couple months can go by without any creating at all, and then the guilty artist voice inside my head begins with  all the “I’m not productive  enough”, “I’ve become a lazy bum” “I won’t progress this way” and so on.. I try not to listen to those evil spirits because for one thing they never help and anyway, a break  is always a good way to  get  into perspective and to see thing from a few steps back. On the other hand, who am I to complain?  I’m in Paradise.