Ken

Ken, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Up and down the Patpong soi called Boy’s Town, muscular young Thai guys dance in their underwear, do push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups to pulsating disco tracks.  Plenty of gay guys from all over Asia, especially Taiwan and Singapore.  Western guys too, from Germany, Sydney and San Francisco.  Sometimes one of them gets drunk and crazy and jumps on stage to dance.

Tilac Agogo

Tilac Agogo, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

The girls at Tilac Bar are often mothers of one or two young children left back in dusty farming villages with grandparents.  They finished school at the end of sixth grade, had their babies before they turned 20 and came to Bangkok after their husbands died or left, looking for a way out, trying to be stylish, hoping for the best and sending 5000 Baht a month back home.  Sometimes they get lucky and end up in California, Germany, England or Australia.  Sometimes they don’t and disappear off the face of the earth.