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Somchai Sawasdee

"I am Somchai Sawasdee, nicknamed Jack. I was born on January 31, 1980, the youngest of five children. I have two brothers and two sisters and I feel very lucky to have been born into my family because we are full of love and solidarity. I also feel fortunate because I have always been free to do what I like. Myself? I am joyful, really happy, and like talking.

"As a young child, I loved cartoons and painstakingly copied the characters I liked. In primary school, one of my teachers encouraged me to pursue and live my artistic passion. I enrolled in several drawing contests where I always received prizes. In secondary school, I started drawing my friends' portraits and eventually received a gold medal at an important exhibition. I then studied business and computers in the city, mostly because my parents suggested that it would be a good career with opportunities. But of course, after a little while, I dropped out for it is art that I truly love. So, I received a Bachelor's Degree in Art in 2004.

"My ideas are drawn from nature – I touch and immortalize it. My artworks represent feelings of birth, life and void. I live close to nature and can see bark, seeds, mushrooms and fungus growing on a tree. But it's not always what it seems - something grows thanks to and independently of something else. Intrinsically, things keep their individual beauty and lives. From the outside, all may seem at first bound together in a certain wholeness, but the individual insides are a total mystery that should be searched. Things keep changing: Weather and time pass by, altering shapes, colors and odors. The outside may look dry, cracked and weightless but what about the essences – also a mystery that should be searched. Birth… life… perhaps devoid of life… and void!

"Art is so beautiful, it has such untold value. Art can tell you about the history of a whole nation. Each country's artistic values are different and each values artistry differently. It could be cultural. However we have been expressing ourselves through art all around the world from the beginning of time, so there is something mankind all shares. Dreaming as far I can and reaching these dreams is my concept of life. Now, my dream is to reach a stage where I would create artworks I like, expressing my life and feelings through them.

"I would like to thank Novica for making foreigners aware of our arts, ideas and artists. That gives the new generation an opportunity to show our talents."