The art industry in Thailand is male-dominated. To support and empower female artists, Tongjit Torsuwan, aka Pang Torsuwan, decided to form the group HERspective. In the month of love, eight artists from the group joined forces to hold their first exhibition, "Her Love", in which the artists convey their love stories from different perspectives at Yelo House. Life spoke with four of them -- Pang Torsuwan; Atchalinee Kesornsook, aka Atchalinee; Onanong Kaewsomboon, aka Jang Onanong; and Wannaprapa Tungkasmith, aka Collagecanto -- about the power of love and their art.
The four female artists agreed that their love of arts inspired them to work on their pieces. In the past, some of them encountered obstacles to achieve their goals as artists. Pang, Atchalinee and Collagecanto were company employees for years before they made their way in the art industry.
"My love and passion for art affect my paintings. When I wasn't an artist, every painting expressed my pain. My portraits always included scars. People aren't able to tell what we have been through from our appearances. Everyone has a scar. It can be either a large or a small one," Atchalinee said.
Unlike her fellow artists, Jang has received great support from her family to work in the field.
"Love is my main inspiration. In this exhibition, I adapted my love and my impressions about my mother to my painting. Love also affects my emotions, but I'm lucky that I don't have any pressure from my immediate circle to work on art. I can be myself," Jang said.
Successful female artists are still fewer than male artists. Yet their co-operation for the showcase helped everyone understand that there is no disadvantage to being women.
"We didn't know how to further our career in the art industry. Working on the exhibition made us realise that female artists have great potential. Everyone has helped one another out. If the feedback is great, it is a chance to develop our careers," Atchalinee said.
"There are many male artists in the art industry, but they befriend us. Whatever we want to do, they support us. In this industry, our works will prove everything, whether we are women or men. If we work hard, we will receive great results. Our group exhibition will send energy and inspiration to many people about the great support among female artists," Pang added.
Pang Torsuwan 'Self-Love'
Being passionate about surrealism, especially the works of the legendary artists René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, 38-year-old Pang conveys a story of self-love in dreamlike visuals through oil on canvas. When Pang was young, she liked to compare herself with others and didn't appreciate herself. She later came across a book of dhamma which changed the way she looked at herself.
"I was suddenly happy with myself, and I felt that the most important love of all was self-love. I created this collection to remind myself that I should love myself and accept both my beautiful and dark sides. In the collection, I painted two women kissing each other. They are the same person, which represents our dark side and the bright one. The painting represents an acceptance of ourselves. If we can accept who we are, we will please ourselves and be able to give love to others," Pang said.
Atchalinee 'Love Portraits'
The 41-year-old developed her ability to paint by herself. Her influence and interest in Renaissance portraits and styles are from Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
Atchalinee created portraits to thank her friends. photos: WICHAN CHAROENKIATPAKUL
"I felt related to her. Her works were created from pain, but they were sincere. Japanese comics also have influenced me. I like dolls, so my portraits look like dolls. I usually add pain to adorable paintings, but the exhibition is about love. I don't want to include pain in this collection," Atchalinee said.
Since she has struggled to reach her dream career for more than a decade, Atchalinee is been grateful to people who have her back. She portrayed her appreciation with oil-on-panel portraits.
"Some people who encourage and inspire me to work on art -- I knew them from Instagram. We have admired one another's works. Before painting their portraits, I browsed Instagram to see their personalities and flavours. For instance, Mary collects vintage and Girl Scout clothes. Ae likes fantasy stuff, flower gardens and dogs. Three of her four dogs passed away, so I gave them wings," Atchalinee explained.
At the exhibition, people in the paintings came to see their portrait, and Atchalinee received a terrific response.
"They knew which portraits were them. Mary and Ae screamed with joy when they saw the portraits," the artist said with smile.
Jang Onanong 'Eternal Love'
Jang discovered her recognisable big-eye-girl character after she did freestyle drawing for more than 70 pieces and this adorable big-eye girl came out unintentionally several times. In the pop-surrealism collection 'Eternal Love', the 36-year-old painted acrylic on canvas to express her love for her mother.
Eternal Love by Jang Onanong was inspired by the love of her mother.
"I was looking for an idea for 'Her Love' while I was in Prachuap Khiri Khan, where I was born and raised. It reminded me of my childhood. I could feel love and warm memories, which has made me what I am today. The childhood memory is important to our present," Jang explained.
"Eternal Love" features her mother, her grandmother, her sister and herself.
"The grandma in the painting eats a coconut. It symbolises a coconut farm located near my grandma's place. Another painting is my sister and I climbing up to a rambeh tree. It was how we played when we were young. The paintings feature positive sides, though my mother has been through a lot. Everyone has our happy moments, so I painted my mother, feeding her kitten happily. Mother's love is significant. She is an ordinary woman who can take care of us nicely," Jang said.
Collagecanto 'Love Letter'
Collagecanto is the only artist in the group who works on the art of paper design and paper-cutting. The 36-year-old, who has a background in writing, confessed that she has been interested in art, but isn't good at drawing or painting, so she learned paper-cutting and liked its process and details. She personally looks up to two professional paper-cutting artists, Bovey Lee and Elsa Mora.
Above Collagecanto is the only artist at 'Her Love' who uses collage and paper-cutting techniques.
"I'm impressed with their works. Lee mixed traditional patterns with photography and collage before cutting them. Her work is detailed. For Mora, she uses lots of techniques. Learning from them was my starting point to think I could tell more stories through paper," Collagecanto said.
The artist presents four pieces in the "Love Letter" theme. My Unsent Love Letter is a combination of collage technique and paper-cutting. This piece is a collection of 90s stamps and her own letters that she wrote to her crushes, but was too shy to send them to the guys. Another piece, Dear Chantana, is a paper-cut lyric from a hit song in the past. Collagecanto admired the lyric because it was honest and in detail, until she could visualise what happened to a guy who has a crush on a female worker in a factory named Chantana.
The other two are from the movies A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You.
Right The letter Dear Patrick in the 'Love Letter' collection is a poem from the movie 10 Things I Hate about You.
"The letter Dear Jocelyn, from the movie A Knight's Tale, was interesting. While writing the letter, the male protagonist William and his friends discussed their girlfriends and love lives. The letter was a result of their discussions. The last piece, Dear Patrick, was a poem that a female character named Kat wrote," the artist said.
"Love Letter" was a challenge for Collagecanto because it was the first time that she cut typography.
A portrait of Mary who likes to collect vintage and girl scout uniforms, left, and a portrait of Ae, who loves flower gardens and her four dogs.
Other works at 'Her Love'.
"I always cut paper in shapes such as a flower or a doll. It is a challenge to cut typography. I had to focus. If I made a mistake and cut off some typography, the letter or the lyric wouldn't be comprehensible," Collagecanto said.
"Her Love" runs at Yelo House, Kasemsan 1, until Feb 28. Admission is free. Visit facebook/pg/yelohouse or call 098-469-5924 for more information.
