Patpong Girl

Patpong Girl, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

For two years, she’s been dancing in a Patpong bar, about a hundred tourists a night, thirty-five thousand a year, seventy thousand in all, from Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Japan, Korea and the U.S.  She looks at each one, knows them better than they know themselves, who they are, what they are looking for and whether they are worth her time.

Blond Gogo Girl

Blond Gogo Girl, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

                                       

She has a power beyond herself, a dancer in the Bangkok Night…..dark brown skin, dyed blond hair, blue lenses in her eyes, she’s more mythic than real and the guys are there to worship and adore………..

Pretty Lady Bar

Pretty Lady Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Up on stage, she has a power beyond herself, a dancer in the Bangkok Night.  Dark brown skin, dyed blond hair, blue strobe lights in each eye, she’s more mythic than real and the guys are there to worship and adore.

Number 26

Number 26, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Number 26 has a magic about her as she floats through the Bangkok Night.  A commodity for sale, holding onto her pole, she retains her smile and sense of humor as she constantly examines her world.  She likes the men who understand her distance, her value beyond herself, who know that knowing her for a night or two can change their lives and point of view.  No matter who and where we are in life, we are all holding onto a pole and we are all for sale and we must all examine our lives.  And we must still be able to smile.

What Your Name

What Your Name, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

What your name, where you from, first time in Bangkok?  The girls are like police, checking out the guys.  Sometimes the abbreviated English makes the guys forget how complex these girls are in Thai.  They let their guard down and become easy marks.  But why not, the girls need the money and they guys have way too much.

Dancer Agogo

Dancer Agogo, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

For a thousand nights, she’s danced in a daze of smoke, sparkling disco balls and the thumping beat from gigantic Bose woofers.  She has seen the faces of a hundred thousand men, their eyes caressing every inch of her flesh.  Tall, short, handsome, ugly, dark, tan, yellow and white, obese and thin, some of them in wheelchairs, others with stutters,  old and young, every kind of man, from every country on earth.  What are they thinking and what do they want, why are they there, in the Bangkok bar where she works and lives and dreams?

Pat

Pat, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Pat used to work as a dancer, now she works serving drinks.  Her kids are ten and twelve, living with her mother in Udon.  She visits them once a year for a week, taking the bus for eight hours each way.  Her life has been exhausting, more than most middle-class women from Europe or North America could imagine or endure.  At eighteen, she was beautiful and could catch a man with just her smile.  Now, she’s wearing out, with many years still to go.