Sun, surf, batik

If not the roosters, then the howling wind and pouring rain is what wakes me up before dawn every morning here in the tiny village of Ban Talae Nok in southern Thailand. Ban means village, talae is sea and nok describes something at a distance. This “faraway village of the sea,” perched on the Andaman Sea marks the launching point of my batik journey and it is my second week here.

After a breakfast of sweet glutinous rice in banana leaf, sugary coffee and syrupy fried dough (thank God for the fruit) I make my way to the home of batik artist Ga Dei, where I will spend the next 9 hours applying wax and paint to cloth, with a hour break for lunch. It amazes me how quickly an entire day passes when I am absorbed in a single task. Before I know it, Ga Dei is pointing at the clock and I barely have time to run to the beach for a quick swim before dinner, followed by sketching for the next day’s work and an early bedtime.

Although it feels as if I have been traveling forever, my actual Watson journey only started two weeks ago and I am still adjusting to the fact that I am now completely on my own. With no English speakers within miles (the first westerner to visit the village arrived just three years ago) I have lived inside my own head for the past 14 days. Gradually, I am starting to listen to myself and accept that there is no one around to admire or condemn my bouts of inspiration. Lonely at first, I now find that I am able to think more slowly and look more closely at the world around me when there is no pressure to maintain a conversation. Every day I open my eyes to new things and am amazed at the infinite variety of colors, shapes and patterns that appear. Somehow my own creativity drives me more than grades or teachers ever have and I feel the need to simply produce as quickly as I can, before the vision escapes me.

Artist’s block was and still is my greatest fear for this journey and this flood of inspiration is a relief. The problem so far has been in choosing between all of the ideas I have and I cannot wait to make them all a reality.

The stare of the blank white canvass they planted in front of me on my first day here was not at all inspiring however and the crowd of villagers who had come to see the falong (foreigner) only increased the pressure. With 15 staring eyes, expecting me to perform, I put wax to cloth and drew the first thing that come into view – the smile of most adorable little girl I have ever seen. Experience has shown me that drawing a child can win anyone over and this crowd was no exception. Since then, I have already created 9 batiks in 12 days – not bad for a girl who took 4 months to just to start her senior batik project.

That is not to say that there are absolutely no restrictions to my creativity. As wonderful as this place is, the batik work here is limited and not very sophisticated. It is used as a way to make money from the tourist groups who arrive to experience village life and Thailand “crafts” firsthand. These batiks have not advanced much further than color by numbers onto wax-encircled shapes and when I tried to move beyond such simple designs to drawing onto colors, they adamantly corrected my “mistake” and would not let me continue until I insisted that I knew what I was doing. I think I am perhaps the first person who has attempted to move beyond the typical flower, bird and ocean designs that they are used to. Sometimes I feel as if I am the teacher and the crowd of onlookers my students. I’m torn between trying to adhere to Thai traditions and methods or revert and move on to different methods and techniques that I have used or new ones I want to try. The tjanting tool (wax pen) that they use here is incredibly limiting and I ache to dip my brush into the wax and paint with the freedom that I am used to. What would the Thai artists think if I tried to dip the entire cloth in dye and perhaps even add the crackle effect? There is actually no choice in the matter however since I know that I will just have to follow my instincts and allow the wax to tell my hands what to do. Anything less would not be true to myself or my work.

Although, I may not be learning much here, at least I have space to work and equipment/materials to use, not to mention the help of a crowd of onlookers, even if it is unsolicited.

Eat, sleep, batik. What else is there? Hooray for the Watson!