Why did you choose to study fine art?
I love it and I think I’m good at it. Not that I’m a master, but that I convey a message in my drawings.

What is the message behind the piece that won the Panasonic contest?
My goal was to represent Thai society from my point of view. It’s full of small details about social rankings and how people live together. This work was inspired by Thai mural paintings on temple walls that tell a story; I used components of that tradition as a way to tell a story about modern Thai society.

In your view, what makes a work of art good?
It must satisfy the artist. If the one who drew it is happy with it, it’s a good work. There’s no need to contribute anything to society. Generating ideas or thoughts in people is only a side effect.

Do you think you were destined to be an artist?
No. There’s no such thing. I think everyone has a certain amount of creativity; the important thing is how one uses it.

If you were not an artist, what would you be?
I would be a construction worker. My father is a construction worker, and if I wasn’t interested in art, I would just work with him. I’m lucky that my family can support me. Some of my friends have financial problems that make it hard for them to work at what they want to do. A canvas, a frame and pastels…these cost a lot.

Why do you think the Panasonic contest committee selected your work?
Because of my gradual improvement. They didn’t just see “Sawan Rumrai” and decide to award me first prize; they considered my past works too. That’s not the only way, though—it’s possible to win with one really brilliant piece.

Who is your idol?
There are so many, but if I had to choose one person it would be Ajarn Panya Vijinthanasarn. I adore how he makes Thai fine art look modern. I wish I could smoothly mix the essence of Thai tradition in my works and make Thai fine art become contemporary like he does­.

It’s kind of an ironic that I became a teacher for bachelor and master degree students. I wasn’t a good student at all. I am more of a sports person.

Reading is a knot that has tied me up from going astray. While my friends went playing snooker or bowling, I went home to read.

A high school kid can easily become self-obsessed. Once an article of mine was published, I began to think writing was “my thing.”

My family was upset when I told them I wouldn’t inherit the family business.

I don’t want to have a lot of money and not have a life. I want to have just enough and be able to live my life the way I want.

Life shouldn’t be kept or carried. Life should be spent.

I tell my students every year that you don’t have to be good at studying—what’s important is to be good at learning. If you don’t get tired with socializing, you shouldn’t get tired with learning, either.

Knowledge is what we must seek. It’s everywhere—on the BTS, in bookstores, in coffee shops and in the mall. It’s up to us whether or not we notice it.

If you work in the media, you have to be one step ahead of everyone else.

There might be some things that you think are not really “you,” but as a writer, you have to experience them for yourself, anyway.

I don’t drink, but I like to go to clubs because I feel that there is culture there for me to observe.

Some people think I’m pessimistic. I praise 70% of the movies I see, but the rest I disparage. And when I criticize, I’m very straightforward.

I don’t bother with nonsense. Some, like Sor Jed, say that I wear Greyhound clothes, so I must be gay. Think what you like. I don’t care.

The value of a critical article is only proven by time. If there is a rumor about you but you keep doing your job well, you’ll be fine. If I knew nothing or I was as bad as they say I am, I wouldn’t have survived in this industry as long as I have.

No matter how famous you are, if you stop producing quality work, society won’t give you the space to stand.

In one sense, I’m a very romantic person, but when I do a job that has an impact on society, I need to be aggressive. What would happen if critics only said good things?

One can’t be satisfied with just flattery—you have to look at criticism and judge if it’s true.

My favorite film is Stand by Me. This movie is not perfect but it has an impact on me and it makes me cry.

Citizen Kane is a perfect and complete film, but I don’t even like it.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude makes me see that a terrible solitude at one time might unlock in you a valuable treasure at another.

I feel happy shopping. During the World Cup, I spent B300,000 at the Adidas Original shop. If you don’t believe me, go ask the shop’s staff at Siam.

In your pocket: A Prose CD, Earwax mix CD (by me!), digi-cam and phone

Never leave home without: Sneakers on my feet

Stupidest trend: Back to front clothes

Favorite audience: Bangkok crowds!

Happiest moment: Realizing my dreams

In 20 years: Constantly elevating towards higher goals

All time fave song: Ultramagnetic MC’s—“Poppa Large (East Coast Mix)”

On a night out you… Drink & conversate

Last lie: “I don’t tell lies”

Rule for life: Spread love not hate

Day job: Freelance promoter

First Job: Kitchen porter (i.e. washing dishes)

Idol: Jazzy Jeff

(Would like to be) Remembered as: An influence.

Someone offered me B300,000 to enter my first pageant—not to win, just to enter. What would you say?

In the US, people who win pageants get a little blurb on the back page of a newspaper. Thailand is a small country—you don’t get a blurb, you get a front page, and not for a day, but for a week.

Winning the Miss Thailand beauty pageant in 1994 was the most tiring experience of my life. You think you win cash and prizes, right? Ha! That prize is your payment for the whole year for traveling across the country, going to events and smiling all day. In a month, I probably had one or two days off.

Sometimes, I don’t understand being kraeng jai. I understand the concept that you have to be compassionate and understanding, but there are other connotations which dictate that you don’t say what you mean, or you don’t mean what you say.

I’m not a professional beauty queen who would do it for the rest of my life. Miss Thailand is like a job for me, and the job is to represent Thailand and Thai womanhood. When I’m on the job, I do the best I can.

Every time I hear someone say that dara is a public property, I always think that a toilet is public property, too.

I want people to judge me from my work, not from my personal life.

I always wanted to be a journalist. After graduating from university, I worked for many newspapers.

My goal when I’m older is to touch my toes. Seriously. I want to have
a strong body and a disciplined mind.

The movie Innocent is my dream project. I always wanted to write a good story.

Kids are excited by nature. As we grow older, we see the ocean and say, “OK,” then go to the hotel and play cards. We aren’t fascinated by it anymore.

I’m like water. You put me in a cup, I’m a cup; you put me in a fish tank, and I’m a fish tank. When people ask me, “Are you Miss Thailand, a writer, a director?” That’s just an external form. I’m still water. I know who I am.

If I stay in the city too long, my water gets cloudy and muddy. While I did Innocent, my water became clear.

The DVD is being sold now for the Baan Mae To Scholarship Fund. We have a hundred kids and the money is going to them.

When this film about the lives of children in a hilltribe village was shown in Korea, France and Macau, the kids asked me, “Is that far from Bangkok?” That’s their perception—Bangkok is the farthest thing to them.

Sound and light are important things in movie making. We got a karaoke microphone, which we used to record sound. For light, we brought clip lights like the ones on your bed. It worked.

We won awards at a film festival in Cambodia, representing Thailand for the first time. Innocent is going to France to the film festival there, competing against films from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A small movie made with a karaoke microphone is going to the competition.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’m shocked by how far I’ve come in my life.

How would you describe your style of music?
Thames: We do retro pop, but we also use brass, violins and the piano in our songs. Even on the fast tracks we work with them. Ever since we saw the movie Chicago, we really wanted that brassy sound.

Were there any major influences or incidents in your lives that made you want to be singers?
Thames: I have always performed on stage, even in kindergarten. When I was in grade six, I had a band with my friends. We started out with traditional Thai music, and it eventually developed into R&B.
Martin: I started out singing karaoke.

Why did you break up with 3+1?
Thames: We wanted to grow up, do everything by ourselves. We couldn’t really see ourselves doing the boy band thing any more, and now we’re trying to distance ourselves from that image. That is one of the reasons why we use all those instruments: to create a completely different style.

Did you write the songs yourselves?
Martin: I wrote “Chok Dii Tee Mee Ta.” It’s about my family and best friends, and how lucky I am that they’re in my life.
Thames: I think about the concepts of the songs. Our second single is a very sexy but also a very sad song. It tells the story of a couple who have to break up in the morning, but they get to spend one last night together. It’s about how sometimes you just don’t want morning to come.

There are also a couple of collaborations on the album?
Thames: Yes, song number 11 features some of our students from our singing school, the Ad Lib Singing Club. The style we teach there is pop and R&B, so we wanted to give them the chance to be a part of our album. Also, Tata Young, one of our closest friends, is one of the producers, and she also sings on the album. She’s great.

What are your hopes for the future?
Thames: We want to concentrate on Thailand first, and then see where it takes us. This is our first step, the first time for us as a duo, so there’s no need to rush things.

Where can the girls usually find you at night?
Thames: We like to go to hip-hop clubs, especially on Silom Soi 4.

Some say the plays penned by the late Irish playwright, novelist and poet Samuel Beckett are gloomy. Others claim they are insightful with elements of wit. Decide for yourself as The Beckett Project, a production featuring four emotive plays Play, Footfalls, Rockaby and Not I by Beckett, is unveiled. We sit down with director Patricia Boyette to chat about this much anticipated performance.

What are the issues tackled in The Beckett Project?
All the plays deal with the plight of the human being in extreme situations that we can all relate to. Questions about life and death are raised. These basic themes provide a challenge for the actor and a different experience for the audience. The effect of the plays is in the experience itself. They do not have a neat beginning, middle and end and a comfortable story line. They work on our imaginations, hearts and minds through their visual images and the poetic music of the language.

Is it hard directing The Beckett Project then?
Directing The Beckett Project is a challenge in many ways. Because Beckett’s works are so minimal, so mathematical in their precision and use of space, the elements that are prescribed must be exact. The empty theater space must be carefully considered and the use of that particular theater space in relation to the few objects and set pieces must be exact.

Many interpret Beckett’s works as stark and pessimistic. Do we expect The Beckett Project to be melancholic?
Beckett is often thought to be dark and depressing. This is not at all the case. There is great humour in Beckett, subtle though much of it is. I find Play extremely funny—a man, his wife and his mistress caught in a hell of their own making and unable to see or change the foibles of their own nature that keep them from repeating the same mistakes. When we performed in Ireland, we had audiences rolling in the aisles with laughter.

Ireland? Where will this play be performed at after Singapore?
This is our debut performance in Asia. We will be performing in Madison, Wisconsin, in the US in September after leaving Singapore. There are some discussions about performing in Seoul, but these are not yet confirmed.

The graduating students of Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP) headline this production. What is it like working with them?
They have been amazing. I was concerned about the relatively short time we have to train and rehearse. But these student-actors are professional and because of their training in a variety of theater forms, our training instantly made sense to them and they were able to apply it quite quickly.

OK, lastly, what do you hope the play will achieve in Singapore?
I hope that the Singapore audiences will enjoy the adventure of experiencing something completely different from the usual theater fare and will come away with a sense of why Beckett is one of the most influential and provocative theatrical poets of the 20th century.

What is your current state of mind?
My mind is at present trying to de-adrenalize and calm down after months of being in a fevered frenzied state while working on Cabaret. Most times it behaves like a schizophrenic gear stick, moving from fifth gear to first gear with absolutely no warning.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be many things: A doctor, Madonna, Fonzie from Happy Days, a photo-journalist, part of Bananarama, John Taylor’s girlfriend, editor of Vogue, Martin Scorsese and the Goddess of Mercy.

What is your biggest achievement?
Being able to finish a golf game without swearing!

What inspires you?
Many things: Kindness. Courage. People who have a great attitude to life. Watching Tiger Woods play. Great architecture in Rome, the Duomo in Milan, Ang Lee films, Martin Scorsese films, Mozart, Kanye West, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Damien Hirst.

Do you have a cause or do you support one?
I support WMD—Women Who Make a Difference. It is a group that works against acts of violence and abuse towards women and children.

Which living person do you admire most and would like to invite for dinner?
WAGS—the wives and girlfriends of footballers. I don’t admire them but I would really like to have them over for dinner and listen to their conversations. I’m sure it will be riveting!

What are you reading?
The Lonely Planet’s Guide to Kenya. I’m going there next month. British Vogue—my toilet reading, and Harry Potter—just got to Order of the Phoenix.

How do you spend your Sunday mornings?
Trying to wake up to accompany my husband Mark Richmond onto the golf course. I usually pray for a thunderstorm.

What is your idea of hell?
Stuck on a low-budget, badly-written, poorly-cast and appallingly-directed TV drama/sitcom on location shooting. Been there a few times and I never want to go back. I would rather clean toilet bowls in Kowloon.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Making my husband skip work to come home and play with me. Massages. Prada.

How do you recharge?
Yoga. Traveling to far, far away places, away from everyone. Reading.

Where would you like to live?
New York and Rome.

What is your favorite item of clothing?
A pink T-shirt my husband bought me. It says “C is for Cutie!” (Laughs)

What accessory sets you apart?
None. I don’t wear accessories except for my wedding ring which is fabulous.

What about you scares others?
Nothing. I don’t scare no one.

If you had to play a character in a movie, which movie and which character?
Catwoman (Batman), Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Fonzie (Happy Days).

What did you believe at 18 that you still believe now?
That life is too short and that you should live each day as if it were your last.

How long have you been a nude model?
Two years. Someone asked me to do it and I was intrigued by the suggestion.

Are there many Singaporean nude models?
There are several. I don’t know all of them so can’t tell you how many there are exactly.

How beautiful does your body have to be?
You don’t have to have a beautiful body. I’ve met models of various shapes and sizes.

What do you think is your best asset?
My legs. They’re proportionate and have muscles in the right places.

Do you do anything special to prepare for a sitting?
No, but I refrain from drinking a lot of water because if I excuse myself from a pose, recreating it will be difficult.

Do you use props to assist your poses?
The artists provide the props. I’ve used a bamboo stick while stationary or in movement. Props help accentuate certain muscles.

What is the strangest position you’ve had to hold?
The “plough” pose. It’s a yoga pose. The legs go over the head and touch the floor. It is not only strange but also difficult and uncomfortable in the nude!

What is the one pose you’d love to try but haven’t had the chance to execute?
I’d like to pose with another model, male or female, skin to skin. When you have two bodies together, the silhouettes and energy are different.

Have you ever fallen asleep?
Once, I dozed off for a split second while doing the “Buddha” pose.

Does the air-conditioning in a room affect you...in any particular way?
Yes, it does. There’s shrinkage in places I can’t mention.

Have artists reacted to your body verbally?
They have told me I have an athletic body and have asked what I do to maintain it.

Who does more nude modeling—women or men?
All the studios alternate so I don’t know.

Have you been drawn in abstract form? What colors were used?
Yes, Chinese ink was poured on paper and the paper maneuvered to create shadows. It was very interesting.

Do artists recognize you on the streets with your clothes on?
Yes, they do. It’s me who often cannot recognize them!

Have you posed for anyone else, besides artists?
Yes, for a photographer. I had to hold far more difficult poses like hanging onto a doorframe!

Why do you do it?
I do it for the sake of art and to meet people whom I would not normally meet.

No matter what form of work I create, I am highly concerned about originality. Creating something new always makes me proud.

Literature is about asking questions, not reaching conclusions. Logic is derived from imagination. I think we should let our imagination—not our reasoning—grow.

SEA Write Awards should have 100 nominees or more—10 are not enough. The SEA Write Awards should attract people to books, because reading has never firmly taken root in Thai culture.

Literature can develop in Thai society if we get more readers. We need to get people to that critical point where those who read are the majority and cause a sudden change in society. For example, The Ring: It’s just a normal thriller, but after thousands of people read it, it led to a new genre of modern thriller.

My inspiration comes from both Thai and international history alike. For example, 8 1/2 Richter was inspired by the Ku Gam story, which is very political. Although people think of it as a touching love story, it actually questions Japanese authoritarianism.

If I could pick one book to describe Thai society today, I would choose Dogwalker by Arthur Bradford [translated into Thai by Prabda Yun as Kon
Hua Ma].

Nowadays, humans are more like animals. Everybody only competes for himself or herself and uses nothing but basic instincts.

We lack sexual fantasy literature in Thailand. Lately, literature abides by mainstream morality too much. SEA Write should pick authors with less traditional styles as nominees; just one book per year would be enough.

I hope to reach the masses with my novel, but it will be tough. In today’s world, the masses are more influential than the contents of a book.

If I had to categorize my books, I’d say they are serious literature. Unchallenging stories don’t pay much attention to imagination and creativity.

Serious literature focuses on content. These books try to collide with people’s thoughts, activate the imagination. An essential point of serious literature is creating independent ideas.

It would be great if there were an exchange of ideas between serious and less challenging novels. I’m positive that one day someone will be able to lessen the gap between these two types of books.

People say that serious books are full of metaphors, and that’s true. The reason is that metaphors lead people to their own ideas. But “full of metaphors” is different from “hard to understand”: Serious literature can be easy to understand, too.

Less is more. Being simple is good, but less can be boring if it’s not good enough. In a way, Thaksin’s words are interesting, because they stimulate people’s imagination.

In the past, form followed function, but nowadays I think form must follow imagination.