KHE PREFACE
I started helping out a new friend Dr John by doing some house cleaning for him.
The house was incredible like a private museum so that I did not know where to
look first so I started to look at the things I was dusting and asking about pieces.
There were lots of objects from all over the world but many were from South
East Asia and of course I was drawn to those that I recognized, the arts and crafts
of my Thailand. So were very old, many hundreds of years old. There were things
I could never have imagined owning myself.
He was patients with me and started to explain things and told me where they
came from and how they were made. He told me why certain pieces were special
to him and why he valued them. I started to understand and recognize what I
liked myself.
I used to draw when I was younger and that night I started to sketch again in
bed. I started to draw things I had seen and ideas that I had about Dr John’s
things especially his pictures which were so different and mainly by Australian
painters. These then are the drawings that are part of this book.
I also drew pictures from my childhood and of home in Thailand. Dr John helped
me to explore different mediums and to free up my drawing techniques. He was
very much part of my growing awareness of art and of encouraging my love of
art. He has had a very long interest in art and he shared this with me. He has
been very much my mentor.
My family and my home are very important to me and I wanted to give my
mother something to show of my life and development in Australia, I had had
very little formal schooling. The idea of publishing a book for her and my friends
grew and became a driving force as I spent hour upon hour drawing. I felt
liberated by being able to create art, I felt more confident in myself. So the book
is for Mum but it is also for me and my friends both here in Australia and in
Thailand who have always loved and supported me.
It was important to me that Dr John agreed to help me with the English captions
and in planning what the book should be and how it should look. It has
strengthened our friendship. None of this would have been possible without the
unwavering support of Michael and Russell, they have been my rock. Thank you
seems such an inadequate way to express how I feel but they will know and
understand.