Hualamphong Train Station, Bangkok


While I was in Khao Yai, one of the backpackers that I met asked me if my exhibition would have been different had I done all my traveling before I developed the show, rather than after. I told him that although I have been in complete awe of the beauty of Thailand, it is a different sort of awe that inspires my artwork. My work comes from an interest in human development, human clutter--it is a scale difference. When I look at a limestone mountain range or another natural wonder, I get a rush that is similar to a creative one, but it is sort of paralyzing or humbling. The complexity of the natural world is beyond my comprehension; it is incredibly articulate, and nothing that I can make can capture that complexity or make it any more beautiful or visceral than it already is. Anything that I would make on paper or in sculpture can only be a simplification of what is already there and took millions of years to create. The documentary "Burden of Dreams" about Werner Herzog is a great example of this frustration with the natural world.