Thigh Bar

Thigh Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Pom is the manager of Thigh Bar at the entrance to Patpong.  In the heart of tourist sleaze, surrounded by drunken Expats, desperate bargirls and wandering ladyboys, she somehow manages to stay friendly and relaxed.  If you have been there once in the last ten years, she will remember your name and what you ordered to drink, even the name of your girl and where she ended up.  If you know enough to show respect, you will be treated well and only hustled a little.  On the other hand, if you act like an asshole, it will never be forgotten.   You will always be an asshole, from the moment you walk in the door until the day you die.

Old Mamasan

 Old Mamasan, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

She’s been the Mamasan for thirty years, watched too many girls work way too many men.  Heard too many stories, seen too many tears.  Desire is an illusion, she knows too well.  She goes to the temple every day and listens to the monks.  But how else is she to earn a living?

Timothy at Pegasus Club

Timothy at Pegasus Club, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Timothy’s been 10 years in Bangkok, Director of Asia Marketing for a leading luxury goods company.  He spends his days in a gleaming office tower, reviewing the latest campaigns,  checking demographics, chasing down manufacturers of counterfeit goods. He’s built an Asian luxury goods empire, made a few million along the way. A regular at Pegasus, the Mamasan knows him well, as do many of the 200 girls.  He brings out-of-town clients there as well as the guys from headquarters. The smiles, beauty and style leave them dazzled, dizzy and grateful, an ultimate boys night out.

Pom

Pom, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Pom, the manager of a Patpong bar, has worked the Bangkok Night for 30 years, never as as a dancer but as a cashier and manager.  She has seen every kind of man and every kind of woman, great, good, bad, horrible and in between.  Every situation in the ongoing drama of man woman relations.  All the distortions and variations of human behavior.  A hundred thousand customers a year, three million in all. Each customer, drawn in by the power of the Bangkok Night, to be obliterated or revealed, triumphant or defeated, passing from one lifetime to the next in the endless cycle of their being.