Bending Lifes Rules

What price are you putting on your life ? I remember when I started work at 16, my time was worth $7 an hour and after 6 months it was worth 50c more.

What makes your life worth what it is? is it your boss? your skill level your luck of landing that dream job? or is it your you wants and needs. If you want a WRX, a motor bike the newest iphone , the latest designer shoes or dress you also need to work. So realistically, you will work at any job you can get, to satisfy these wants you create. You choose how much you work, by how much you want.

Want less, work less, live more.

or even better….

Know what you want but want only little, work smart doing something you love, live gratuitous amount.

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Now down to business its been two weeks since the last post, whats been happening?

I popped over to Australia with the help of some close mates ( Big thanks to Kam Grant(ed), Simon and Leon Dear, Barkley and my older brother John Lee ). They surprised me by generously buying me a return ticket to Australia. Just for the weekend, just for my brothers 30th.. EPIC !!!

My flight got delayed a whole day in Kuala Lumpur .. a bit of a drag, it cut the 3 days away down to just two… not to fret though, a nice muslim girl took me home from the airport and let me stay at her house.

I met a few familys while waiting in the airport, here I am with a collection of their kids playing games

Flying into Australia a day late ment that I missed my ride down to Margret river (wine country) from Perth.  Good mates came to the rescue again, Nick Ducrot picked me up from the airport and we set off on the four hour drive straight away.

We arrived to a warm welcome at the villa John had rented, all the big names had turned up and we were soon herded into two mini vans and driven to town. Wine tour time.

John had rented all 22 of us mountain bikes, the day was to be spent cycling 18km and doing skids and jumps between vineyards . Our friend Gad was the first to go over the handle bars and as we got more drunk a few more little mishaps happened here and there. Five vineyards later we all sat around in the sun eating cheese, pickled meats ,olives and crackers, the cheese for me was something special, over the last year I haven’t had a good cheese. Its just hard to find in a lot of countries.

When we got back at the Villa Zach Cassidy set up his turntables and started playing slow jams until every told him to shut up .. haha .. nah. I cant back that up with fact, the truth of the matter is Zach is pretty good on the tools and there was dancing and rump shaking.

I will leave names out of this but there was a bit of a mishap during the night, one of our friends was in bed with a girl trying to get some action and a few mates busted in the room, the friend jumped out of the bed and kicked the door shut … unfortunately another friend had his finger in the door and it nearly got cut off. There was blood and there was weeping.. moral of the story is … don’t don’t UFC kick doors taking for Kamron Granted that all fingers are clear. No fingers were lost and the music went on, so all was well .

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Im on a plane. I’m in an Airport. I’m on another plane, then back to 37 degree Bangkok for a coconut, kiwi fruit smoothie.

My studio is pretty set up these days, I have meters of canvas and liters of paint. .. time to get cracking again. Here is somethings I finished lately.

Mural 3m tall in a friends Audio Visual Studio

For Sale - Acrylic on 40x60cm board

I finally finished the final papers of my Teaching English Cert. Now I can teach english at any of the schools here in Thailand. Within days of getting my cert I get offered a full time job teaching english at an institute not far from my house.

22 hours a week and 30 000 baht a month ($1000 USD)…. I turn it down. 22 hours, believe it or not is to many hours for me to work in a week, this blog isn’t called ‘Obeying life’s rules’ now is it, 22 hours is to much. Luckily I got some heat from a classified I posted online a week or so back, a mother of an 11 year old boy needs a private art/animation teacher.

This suits me much more, its 1.5 hours a week, plus an hour or so prepping the lesson and 2 hours travel. $30 USD p/h. My rent per month is $170 so if I work this animation job and sell a few paintings a month, I’m making a living.

The main reason I turned down the 22 hour a week teaching english job was that it would take huge amounts of time away from my painting, I seem to be painting in bursts and the bursts are unpredictable, some times I paint from the moment I wake up , others I don’t start till late at night then work through the dark hours. If I had an obligation to wake up ever day at a set time I feel I wouldn’t paint so much.

Im going to finish here but ill just note a few other things I’ve done since my last post, I help design some graphics for a lighting and visual studio of my friends.   I painting this mural and also got my self a full Cashmere get up for teaching

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods

MD out

Right, I thought I would update this before I head off to Australia on tomorrow because I’m sure this trip will be full of funny tales and stories

Some Muay Thai in the streets of down town Bangkok

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Dan Bregman a close friend from New Zealand turned up on Tuesday but his girl friend  got here two nights earlier .. together her and I hit the Bangkok nightlife propa’, first khao san for a meal and drink followed by a trip down to Sukumvite with 5 girls I live with. There we continued to drink in a club until we met two giants.

These giants took us to an after hours club where alcohol become free and the good times rolled.

The next night was my friend Yuval’s going away party, at my old house/squat ‘TheOverstay’ I had been asked to be part of the entertainment and do a painting on the wall as the night went on. The spot on the wall was right next to the DJ booth so I ended up having to finish the eyes in the dark as people danced. Here is a pic.

3m tall

When Dan turned in Bangkok, he was exhasted but the city brought him to life. I showed him Khao San road but it was a wednesday, I have never seen Khao san so quiet. There is still 100 or so people in each club and the street is teeming with life, oddities and oddballs,  yet it wasn’t its usual shoulder to shoulder madness, its quite nice. We have a few drinks on Khao san then get a free ride down town to some super clubs.

Popping a bottle of Bicardi with my new Gold member ‘Matt Boss Diamond ‘ card we party here till the wee hours.

One of my friends graduated this weeks I went along to join in the celebration

I have been thinking up new ways to earn little bits of money part time. My thought is, if I make little bits of money from a lot of different part time avenues I will have enough to live while having the flexibility to do what I want when I want.

Next month I’ll be getting into the TV commercial and movie scene but this week I have introduced a new way to make $5-10 into my game plan.

I have started buying things for you here in Thailand because I can get things cheap here  then I  send them back to you/friends where ever you are in the world so you can reap the savings. I add $6 for my taxi ride to and from the super malls and add $5-10 on items brought., its not a living on its own but its another small income that will amount to my sustainability. I have created a Facebook page with items for sale and more information you can find it here … feel free to contact me if you want me to have a look around for items for you. I will update this page with new items i search out for people and new information about whats cheap and whats not .

Making money this way..well thinking up enough small part time jobs that make money isn’t easy, however I sure like the challenge. I think it is defiantly possible to sustain myself like this and I’m looking forward to seeing how I end up doing it

So far I have tried and ditched a lot of ideas that just didn’t work. Doing drawings and designs for people on www.fiverr.com where every drawing was sold for the maximum of $5, I have done fire shows in central America that solely relied on people putting money in a busking hat that circled the club. I have sneakily drawn people on the street an presented them with the drawing as a gift, if they were feeling generous they would offer me money or buy me food, yet if they just offered a smile and a chat that was enough as well. I have tried selling my artwork on the street beside other street artists here in Bangkok.. all of which haven’t been very fruitful money wise but have been really fun to try out. Currently I dont have a need for a large income and can honestly say  I don’t need much money to do the things I enjoy.  I just need a roof over my head, a healthy environment, food and art supplies.

What I do feel I need along with these necessities, is the freedom to do what I please when I feel like it, a full time job for me will not grant me this. Animation in New Zealand although was what I thought I wanted at the time ( a full time art job ) still didn’t provide me with freedom to grow as an artist. Here in Bangkok I learn, paint and draw everyday, any subject I please, and for any amount of time. This is freedom, I throughly enjoy this.

Lunch in my studio as i paint a hat

The time I have been living in Bangkok has been great and although I’m going to Australia on Thursday I’m looking forward to coming back to this crazy city and making it work for me.

Here is some projects I have made for people this week, thank you for all that have brought something and I hope you enjoy the finished product.

Custom Wallet and a Custom Tobacco pouch

I hope where ever you are in the world that you are having fun throughout your entire week, work included, if things are not going how you planned them, simply change your plan and try something else. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind.

Winston Churchill once said that ‘Success consists of going from failure to failure with out loss of enthusiasm’ I would like to add to this by saying the enthusiasm doesn’t need to be focused on on a set goal.

I don’t feel an ultimate success is possible, in a sense that once we reach a goal we just end up making another, its how we work. Its up to you to decide if your subconsciously making yourself unhappy by not appreciating what you already have, or if you just like the challenge of reaching for something you desire.

Either way, as we all move forward we should enjoy the path we walk towards to our goals and future. As we strive for the things we ‘want’ we should be trying new things, challenging ourselves, growing and continuing to learn, this is a success. A life isn’t filled with stories about when your bank balance finally got over 1,000 000 its about how you got there and if its in an uninteresting way, well … thats no good either.

Some one close to me who I will leave nameless had that exact goal. To have 1,000 000 GBP in his back account, to be a millionaire. He worked his ass off doing a high risk job that could have easily taken his life or/or limbs. He ate cheap, lived cheap and saved those pounds. When his bank bank finally read over 1,000 000 pounds (1,00 126.50) it dawned on him that a big part of his life was gone, he had no friends other than work mates, he had no stories to tell and the friends he used to have, didn’t want to know about this million pounds, they wanted to know where he had been.

Needless to say, becoming a millionaire this way isn’t a way to enjoy your life. If you your goal is to be a millionaire, find an enriching way of getting there.

The man in question ended up blowing all that hard earned cash trying to get back the hours of life experience he had lost working for it.

What ever you are doing and where ever you are, have fun. Your life is yours to create.

This weekend Bangkok seemed utterly surreal, a ghost town during the day yet by night thousands of people filled the streets for a water fight that lasts eight or nine hours.

Its Songkran – Thai New Year, a fresh start for everyone and time to respect elders and for cleansing. Traditionally fragrant water was gently poured over elders hands or over a buddha image to wash away the dirt they have carried in the last year, this evolved over time to an all out water fight. A blessing in this hottest month of the year.

Breakfast… I stroll out of the house to go down the road and get something to eat, as I turn the corner close to the main road. Soaked. Head to toe I’m dripping, and this is only the beginning. For the next four days its a gamble to leave the house and come back dry, people line the streets manning their water hoses, water guns and buckets of water waiting for anyone to cross them. In the land of smiles ear to ear grins have never been so evident.

So what to do? Shops are closed, people are going mad and its going to go on for five days (more in some other cities).

Kanjana and I get our selfs equipped with water guns and join in. First top the tourist and local party district Khao San.

The place is rammed with people, we weren’t able to get all the way there with out getting wet but dry clothes were never going to last long. People everywhere are shooting each other, water trucks shoot their high powered hoses into and over crowds. Another thing to point is the clay. White clay is carried around in small buckets and bowls, a little water is added then the  person wielding the clay smears it on anyone and everyones face. Everyone is wet, and white. Kaos on Khao San.

After the Kaos - note the clay covered ground

The road that stretches 1km and its adjacent roads are so full of dancing, water fighting, clay throwing, smiles that it takes us a few hours to do a lap. Day one.. complete.

The next biggest night we ventured on was the final day of Songkran, for this we headed down to the business district, Silom.

I thought it was a big party the previous nights but Silom, oh my days, this place goes off in festival style.

All through Songkran it was difficult to take photos because obviously electronics and water just don’t mix, but when we had a chance we snapped a few.

Because of the festivities all shops have been closed and unfortunate timing but this seems to be the week were I ran out of most of my paints. All is in order again now and a massive 2m x 1.5m painting should be finished by next week for you to see.

I have started  Facebook page for my art alone to try branch out from just blog readers, I will still update the art page on my blog and put all the art I create in my weekly posts. The Facebook page is to try reach more people and easy to share. If you feel like sharing feel free its always appreciated

MattDiamondExpressive Facebook

I’ve started a collectors series of paintings for anyone who wants one called ‘Robots out my window’ They consists of friendly, misunderstood, city destroying robots getting attacked by humans. The paintings are cartoon style in pastel colours and have a real window frame attached to the canvas so when the viewer is looking at the painting they are truly seeing ‘Robots out my window’.

Here is a time Lapse of me making it.

http://youtu.be/5xusoWY7L_U

If the video isn’t showing on your browser click here

A body paint this week

I loved the Overstay as a place to live and the family I had there are unmatched. Alas my paintings were getting to big and stale smoke and no windows isn’t good for my well being.

So.. I searched for a new place and ‘WAM BAM,’ thank you girl that I Graffitied on.. I found a place.

The view from my roof

My new place is five stories of cool tiled rooms and living areas, a roof top garden and higher roof top with a view of Rama 8 bridge. The place houses 8 or 9 people and is advertised as an art house, meaning, I’m aloud to paint on the walls and use the garage down stairs as a big studio. Perfect.

Another cool point is that its super local around me now instead of a main road, I live amongst a little community, it almost feels like a small town rather than a big city now

I also have big windows in my room, thus delicious fresh air.

Painting wise I have been going at it everyday. I’ve also started a self study program where I study the art and work of the masters to see what makes them masters, so far I have picked a lot of things in their work that I don’t just lack but I just don’t have in my own work so am going to step up my game and learn a bunch of new techniques and then mix them all up. Here is some of my latest works.

 

Custom one off made to order wallet

 

Body painting has been going well, I have moved on from dishing them out for free, to getting paid to paint on girls, a step in the right direction I think. Here is one from this week.

If you read the art filled post a few weeks ago about the art studio V64 you will remember how amazing the artists there were. Through the magic connections of Facebook I started chatting to one of the ‘live in’ artists there at V64, his name Cece.

Photo by Jeremy Sinsimer

Brazilian by ethnicity this traveling artist now resides in a small quarters at V64, from his room he walks through a tinted sliding door into his studio where he creates his works and makes his living. I was lucky enough this week to go out and hang out with Cece as he showed me his way of painting.

While I was there I made use of the 20 spray cans I dragged along. Here is the piece I did on the wall of this famous gallery in Bkk.

Im currently working on two bigger canvases that should be ready for next weeks blog(ones for you Nick)

Things, if they were not already, seem to be really heating for the upcoming months.. it may be the humid rainy season or it maybe networking and initiative are paying off…here is a teaser  of a few things that I might have in the pipeline

-T-Shirt production

-New Era hat productions

-Becoming a movie star?

-Part time Art Teacher

-An Australian trip?

-An Exhibition

-10m paid graffiti in central Bkk

Stay tuned to see if I can make it all happen, thank you for reading

Matt `

This week has flown by, with no big hurdles apart from nearly getting gutted in a bar fight… no biggie.

A balmy 36 degrees in BKK as a storm makes its way towards us

Last saturday was an impromptu party in our building, a quality DJ was playing tracks and people flowed in and out the door. The night progressed as any here in the Overstay, people downed spirits and beers under the musky lit interior of the ground floor. It was maybe two in the morning and I was perched up on a bench behind the bar getting people drinks when needed but otherwise just enjoying the night and company of my Overstay family.

Over the music the flow of the night was suddenly torn as angered voices boomed over the sound system. Glass was heard smashing and rapid fire commotion sparked up in front of the DJ booth. Three or four people could be seen putting there weight behind punches, it was a tornado on the dance floor moving towards the entrance of the bar. I popped myself off the bench, my moments of bliss ruined and edge my way out towards the fight to see whats going on and see how it can be stopped.

It seemed to have been a quick scuffle, a Thai guy has a cut face and two tourists are making for the door. A Thai guy who I’ve seen here before is touching his face trying to assess damage then launches for the door after the two tourists, this is going to get ugly. Its usually a rule of thumb never to fight locals while your traveling, one because its not your country so don’t start trouble, and two because in places like Thailand where respect and ‘face’ is important things can get very ugly if a local made to look like a fool. In this case this Thai guy and his friend have just been hit by two foreigners and they now think that they might be on the loosing team. I catch a madness sparkle in this Thai mans eye as he made his way for the door and the retreating tourists.

I cant let this happen.

I make my way quickly between him and the door and catch his eye. Shaking my head I tell him ‘it’s not going to happen’. He launches forward at me and I’m forced to grab him and push him back against a pillar. He asks me if his face is bleeding.  Its not and telling him so seems to calm him for a few seconds. I let him go. Surveying the area calmly he walks towards the bar then in a flash, bolts around the pool table heading for the door again. Im in pursuit and catch the back of his shirt, yanking him towards me. I put my arm around his neck and pull him backwards until I feel the wall against my back. There are others around him now trying to calm him. A Thai friend of mine approaches cautiously from the front and with fear in her eyes keeps repeating something in Thai.

There was something odd in her demeanor that made me assess the situation again, I peer over the man I’m restraining shoulder to get a quick lesson in Thai. The girl is saying ‘PUT DOWN THE KNIFE… GIVE ME THE KNIFE’

Here I am putting my weight into holding this aggressive Thai guy back as his blood boils and in his left hand he grips massive kitchen knife.

Suddenly I feel I may be in a position of weakness, of stupidity, of danger. Fortunately he hands over the blade that just seemed to have materialized from nowhere. I let out a sigh of relief. This Thai guy still had some wits about him, in hind sight this makes it even more frighting that he was so angry and out for blood yet  thankfully with his common sense he knew that, what was escalating wasn’t right, and for that I’m damn thankful. I’m not that keen to write this blog for you from a Thai hospital.

Two of my close friend admiring the beginnings of a storm

Has this week been productive?

Massively ! I have completed three more pieces on the walls around the Overstay, two in my room and another downstairs by the front door. A friend and I in the near future will be doing some street murals in our neighborhood so that’s something to look forward to.

A self designed Taniwha

A quick painting to show that I've been body painting here

My room

 

Dont trust a Suit

I also went out and brought a roll of canvas… this is no ordinary roll, its a 10m x 3m roll of quality canvas… this was a big step for me as it now means I can’t travel anywhere.. well until I paint 10m worth or paintings that is. While I’m here in Bangkok I can think of nothing I would rather do than paint so please feel free to contact me if you would like anything done.

To start on this new canvas, I conjured up a little creature who loves to dream about Graffiti, here is a time lapse of me creating it over a few days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqNVcGqviU

If the video isnt showing on this page go to the link below to see me creating the painting on you tube

MONSTER Time Lapse

The project I’m most excited about is a giant Notorious BIG painting for Nick Ducrot, this painting has been a huge learning curve for me, the face I’ve repainted three times. I have been trying to push on the boundaries of colour for this one and to be honest I have failed 3 times, I’m happy with the tones finally and hope to be finished this special piece for Nick next week.

Work in progress

Money wise I’m not nearly dry but am now sustaining myself off painting for people. I would like to thank all the people who have been buying things off me, its a huge motivation to have people enjoying my work. Every piece sold just fuels my drive to paint and draw more. I’ve said it before but 2012 for me, is make or break .. I don’t plan on the latter. Thank you all

Matt

Bangkok, a city that never sleeps, a town that can smell like fecal mater then 20 meters away be so ritzy you feel underdressed….. enter into this world, the whirl wind that is Martin Evitt. Martins a friend I grew up with in New Zealand, he is working in the mining industry in Australia at the moment. He works two weeks then gets one week off, this week long break he has decided to pop me a visit.

I wake with a throbbing head to a knock on my door and its the smiling face of this man, ready to destroy Bangkok. Am I ready for this, of course

We start his trip by heading down to grab one of my favorite pork dishes, his trip I have decided will include only the best foods that I have discovered during my three months here, every meal will be amazing. Heading back to The Overstay sipping on two freshly popped coconuts I ask Marty what he wants to do, what he wants to get out of this trip to Bkk, he replies solemnly  ‘Everything’.

That night we head out to Khao San road, a circus of a street that never falters when providing chaos, interesting sites and sounds. After eating and having some pre-drinks here, we head to the street over, to watch some live music then head to the infamous ‘Nana Plaza’. Nana’s is a place I hadn’t gone before due to, basically other things to do, and not feeling the need, but with Marty in tow we are both out to capture all sides of Bangkok in four days, Nana’s is on the lists of things todo.

Nana plaza is not in Paptong, the sex district, but is a mini sex district its self. The Plaza is a six story U shaped building FILLED, with strip clubs. We wander though having a few ridiculously priced beers and watch some dancers do there thing, caning each other on stage, girls dancing in showers, all sorts of madness. This I must add is all in abundance, one club I counted the girls, they had two stages with 20 half naked girls on each. Madness. After we realise that the girls have numbers on them, (I’m guessing so you can pick what one you want to take home) we decided this wasn’t for us and moved on.

We headed for ‘Insomnia’, a club in Sukumvit that rages all night. We rolled though the door in to a gigantic space, people mingled everywhere but the place wasn’t so packed. Chatting to a stage dancer waiting her turn to dance she told us in about half an hour the place will be jammed, hard to believe I thought.

Half an hour later … the place is heaving. We party here making friends and drinking till the early hours.

Sleeping during the day we wake up and once again get an amazing meal, then head to MBK, the biggest mall in Bangkok. Marty came to Bangkok with carry on luggage but has paid for 30kg luggage for his return flights, he plans on making the most of the prices here.

We walk the mall grabbing this and that while I converse with a friend via text about a big party that night. Its friday night in Banga’s, every nights a saturday here, but there is still bigger things happening in the weekends. Tonight is an ‘Altitude’ party… 39 floors elevated, the party is on the roof top of The Imperial Queens park hotel and is going to be plush.

‘Lets get tailored suits’ Marty says.

It’s nearly 5pm, we go to a few tailors and try out luck, they can make us the suits and get them delivered but we need them faster than that. We opt for buying nice dress shirts and ties, this is going to be a good night.

Arriving early to the party with a new friend Ned, beer is free and the view is amazing. Djs spin funky old school hiphop on one stage and house on another. Live drumming complements  the house music and the hip hop soon turns into liquid drum and bass as the night progresses.

Long story short, the night is epic ending with the first western food I’ve had in months, Subway. Gota love a good sandwich.

Its saturday !! St Patricks day !! We pass out from exhaustion out unable to join the festivities.

Up early the next day we head out and get some $10 massages to start the day off right, then to the weekend markets, a HUGE market in Bangkok that a map is needed to navigate. We go mapless and wander the streets of stalls filling Martins bags.

Drenched in sweat we head home to quickly shower before heading down the river on a dinner cruise. This was pretty cool but not something I would do again, it caters for tourists with money to burn and lacks anything new and interesting apart from a buffet.

Tattoo anyone? Marty gets his sisters name tattooed on his leg in the form or a cigarette butt, something Martin had got me to draw up prior to his trip.

Ashlee-Ashbutt- Ash and butt

———–

Cheers Marty for the epic times here, hanging out with someone with a real job really opened up a lot more of Bangkok that I hadn’t seen before. Its not often I party roof top in silk garments.

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Artistically I never have to look far in Bangkok for inspiration, the place is bustling with life and energy, something haven’t before been exposed to in a city. This week how ever I travel with a friend to the edge of the city to an art studio/gallery/artist accommodation.

The place is called V64 and is the hope to 75 live-in artists. It was opened to give local and traveling artist a place to live, display there works, meet other artists and meet investors and buyers. Im currently looking for a new place to live so when I heard about this place I had to check it out. It turns out the place is maybe to far out of town for me to live but as a creative hub it is amazing.

I will let the art tell its story..

Enjoy

ABOVE: Saward and a painting of his Dad
BELOW : Another painting of Sawards Dad

Now some of my own from this week

 

If anyone wants a custom New Era snap back, feel free to contact me

These little gift packs full of custom painted wallets were sent off the other day, I hope the recipients enjoy them. Thank you guys for the support

 

I sit slumped in a worn couch, the cracked discolored pleather showing its age as it scratches my back. Jazz fills the room and air circulates due to an oversized portable fan, a blessing in this Bangkok heat. Its been two weeks since my last blog update so lets start from the start, a street artist I met when I first arrived here in Bangkok wanted to get away from the city and asked me to join her. I couldn’t see the hard in going on holiday from my holiday so we head south by train to Hua-Hin a small fishing village.

We basically spend 3 days lazing around on the beach watching kite surfers and eating sea food. By the end of it I couldn’t wait to get back to my art back in Bkk. When I return productivity returns to normal.

The Overstay (my house/squat/base) loves to host themed parties, last weeks was a ‘kinky’ party and damn, it was all that and then some. Whips were brought out for willing rumps and a wax dripping table was set up for people to get burnt on. A pool was brought into the bar and windows were blacked out … the rules were.. keep it kinky. Costumes consisted of leather straps, leggings, corsets, bikini’s and anything raunchy that was available, if you didn’t turn up in costume stripping was mandatory.

I had the job of body painting all night which was a ball, here are some pics of two girls I dosed with paint and a bit of the madness that went on.

A day or so later a friend of mine I met while living in Malaysia popped in and she also got some painting done on her but this time I could spend my time on it so I feel the result was much better.

Lately I’ve been hanging out with a lot of Thai going places I cant pronounce and eating food I cant remember but its been good, after two months here I’m finally seeing more of this amazing city.

Art wise here everything is full steam ahead, the custom wallets I’ve been making and selling have been going well. I have had a few issues with the paint and wallets reacting but have found that certain wallets are perfect for painting and others are just throw away, apologies go out to Will Gimbly for the delay but I didn’t want to send an inferior wallet your way. In my opinion the second wallet is better anyway

Top left thrown away because of paint issues and dislike. The rest are all SOLD. Email me or comment if you would like a custom wallet yourself

My number of paintings around The Overstay has been also been on the rise with a two new walls done and the completion of one of the main walls in the bar by doing one last painting where a photo used to hang.

With this final painting replacing the photo that used to hang, all the art work on this wall is mine

A huge shout out to Gareth Atkinson who liked the first ‘Robot through a window’ I painted. He has ordered one and I hope to have it finished by next week if all goes to plan.

In one of the above photos from the ‘Kinky’ party is a Vinni, he is dressed in a pink dress with tennis ball tits. Vinni is a guy who has a similar mind frame to mine and is actually doing already what I have just started, living in Bangkok, improving art skills and earning a living doing so. Vinni has been here for over a year and last weekend got me an invite to a graffiti collaboration called ‘Meeting of characters style’.

The aim was to cover a wall in graffiti yet use no words, only characters. I felt stoked to be part of this and to meet a whole new scene of artists here in Bkk. Here are some time lapse videos of the day. The Green dog is mine and Vinni’s piece is to the left of mine yet unfortunately for a lack of ladders he was unable to finish.

FINALLY I have got rid of my mates Sapphires, they had been hidden in my room for to long, I mentioned in my blog that I had already been to the police and got the money back but that I’m afraid was all a ruse I didn’t want anyone to know I had a $2000 pair of earrings in my room.

I went to the cops when I couldn’t finally remember that I had the earrings before 5pm. The police seemed used to the idea of someone returning jewelry yet seemed a little shady when it came to getting money back. After a lot of banter I decided to forget the police and head straight for the Sapphire shop itself. Pretending to to be my friend who brought the earrings I put my poker face and asked for my money back. I quickly got lead four stories up, into a board room with a gorgeous thai girl and an ugly old man. The ugly old man apparently was the owner and we started negotiations. I had a contract that said that at any time I please I could return the earrings for 70% of their value.

I asked for 95%.

They said no but could give me a 50% coupon… and this was their final offer.

I refused to budge or accept his pitiful offer to which he seemed to be out of his depth. The ugly slug in a suit left and in walked an even older even uglier man chain smoking packs of cancer. He plonked himself next to me and asked what the problem was… ‘I am the boss here, this is my business’ he said, just like the man prior.

I asked again for 95% refund, cash.

I wont go into what follows because it involved a lot of bak and forth banter. I was quite lucky in the sense that it wasn’t my money I was dealing with so I could keep my calm, where as the old slug seemed to be getting worked up, a big no no in Thai culture. In Thailand if you are seen loosing your temper or even raising your voice to loud you loose face, I made sure I was calmer than this old thing in front of me and on the odd occasion told him to lower his voice.

The old scam artist ended up calling ‘his’ boss to get clearance on giving me 70%. He apparently said it was ok and out came a coupon for 70% value of the earrings…

I declined once more and the negotiations went on.

As I strolled out of there with a pocket full of cash, I felt good, I had got most of my mates money back and was able to dodge the questioning of my visa card saying Matthew Diamond instead of Daniel Brownlie and some how get away with not having a passport on me.

Straight to Western union I went.. well to be honest maybe 5 days later after coming down with some sort of virus.

Saphire Mission – Complete

A friends Tattoo I designed a month or so back

I’ve been flooded with work and I’ve recently had to sort out my priorities and drop a bunch of contract work. I have been drawing pictures for people on a site called fiverr (www.fiverr.com) the site is for people offering things for $5. I was offering drawings of people and there pets, articles written, Chinese ink drawing and things like that, it ended up filling my days. Sounds good but it wasn’t really, I would always spend to long on drawings because I like to do things my best. Mean while a few friends have asked me to design there tattoos and do paintings for them. I would much rather do these.

One major concern of mine at the moment is the correspondence TESOL course I am doing, I have half completed and only a month to finish it. With all the fiverr gigs I wasn’t going to finish this correspondence, if I don’t finish I will loose $400 and the earning power that the knowledge and cert will give me.. priorities .

Im still enjoying where I live, we get all sorts of characters here, from easy going long term travelers to people cant leave the country because of overstay fines and risk of being arrested. Last week there was a Chinese girl with a drug problem who stayed a few nights, she was constantly bouncing off the walls and upon leaving she paid for her stay with her DLSR camera thinking it was a smart move. She later came back to get it back when she was sober again. She explained that she was ‘crazy’ at the time, but she didn’t explain why she was shitting in a plastic bag in her room for the duration of her stay.

Unfortunately we have been picked on lately, there has been a thief among us. Being a hostel/squat/bar the doors of TheOverstay never shut, we just make sure one of the people living here is down stairs during the wee hours to make sure everything is safe and secure. This is a very tiring practice for all especially the solo owner Yuval, he puts in some serious hours to make sure nothing goes missing or wrong in this place, but even he has to sleep. Two weeks ago, during an hour or so around 8 in the morning, no one was down stairs and a laptop got stolen.  Six days ago, again in the single hour or so when no one was around someone came into TheOverstay, up the stairs, into a couples room while they were sleeping and stole a camera and $400 out of their bag.

Last night someone did the same thing, came up stairs, went into our friends room while he dosed in front of his computer and they stole his $2000 camera. Not ideal. Yuval the owner is devastated as was Sasha who’s camera got stolen. Sasha is a documentarist, that camera was not only his passion but his life. Everyones room was straight away searched top to bottom in search of stolen items yet nothing was found. Yuval then went out and brought six security cameras to try catch the bastard. Hopefully nothing happens again, but if it does, we hope to catch the culprit.

Im going to make this next embarrassing story short and sweet. I met a girl networking online the other day and went out to meet her for drinks, turns out it was a a very beuitiful man. Something seemed a little off  as we sat around for drinks but I just couldn’t pick it. Luckily I got the heads up from an english geeza who knew her/him, he locked my eyes with his then they darted back and forth between the girl i was with and me. Then quite obviously he pointed to his own crotch, either he wanted to have the girl for himself or he was implying that she had a dick. I chose the safe options and opted for the latter.. Lucky he was there or things could have been a lot worse.

Ladyboy

Alittle bit of thanks goes out to the people who are buying custom wallets off me presently, the wallets are all sitting in my room now about to get painted. If anyone else wants one please feel free to contact me through the ‘Hire-me‘ part of this blog

Also a big thanks to those who have donated this week for my birthday, it doesn’t go unnoticed , Thank you very much

My Internal clock is now officially screwed,I  went to bed early last night (3am) then woke up out of what felt like a coma, look at my clock and its 5.. I get up and shower and think ‘I must have needed that 13 hour sleep’ because now I feel great and so refreshed.. but I look out side and the suns coming up.. its 5 in the morning !  With out having a proper nights sleep in a while i think my clock has done a full circle. Now I seem to be running on night shift mode, sleeping during the light hours and creating during the dark.

I have noticed how ever, I don’t need much sleep.

Its 3am I feel a little tired, I head up stairs to my room yet instead of sleeping I start drawing. Its now 6 in the morning and I’ve drawn a few things and painted my wallet. I try to sleep to no avail, I think I need to sleep but I’m just not tired. I walk down stairs and start chatting to a friend who has just got back from town. Its now eight am, I shower and retire to my room again.

An hour later I wake and in the dark I fumble for a pen and pad, my head is swimming with thoughts and ideas. With the light that enters my room beneath the door, I begin to write.

‘Happiness.. where is it??’

‘Why, its there’

‘Where??’

‘Right there in front of you’

How can a man not be at the center of his own mind or world, if he can not feel another.

One needs to know someone more and more until the point where he can almost tell what the other is thinking or feeling, thus realizing there is more than just he in this world. A man who cannot connect with another, can not know this happiness, a horrible scenario because this man may never love.

Unhappiness is birthed (triggered) by the mind thinking of something in the present needs to be changed. By dreaming of something different, warmer weather, more time off work, more money or even food, we trigger a reaction that spawns unhappiness. No matter the situation, if you make it a problem you are breading unhappiness.

Without unhappiness there is only love.

Sleep at any hour

Eat at ay hour

Hurt at any moment

Be annoyed at any moment

Be comfortable at any moment

Be uncomfortable at any moment

Be distracted at any moment

Ride this roller coaster letting it unfold in front of you, never worried , never scared , never happy , never sad. Never judgmental, yet never judged.

By pretending to know what another is saying behind our backs, or what they’re thinking, we once again birth unhappiness by adding unknown elements into a scenario. These mysteries plague our minds.

You also wanting your ‘wants’ to be wanted by others brings unhappiness,  this is a common unhappiness because if your ‘wants’ are wanted by others, it proves there is a link between two. This connection is needed if you wanted happiness.

As I write this I’m barely awake I write down a word at a time not knowing the out come of each sentence until its down on paper. Is this some sort of possession? No, that would be adding a mystery to reality or putting blame on something external, nothing is out of our control or unexplainable. These mysteries and things out of our control or grasp are blocks in our minds.

A pure creative mind is one with out such blocks. With out, ‘wants’ or ‘blocks’ a mind can freely spill creativity in any field, art, literature, philosophy, ideals, religions.

Pure calm is pure equality with all.

Managing this calm is radical acceptance, some get this through meditations but even then, the ‘want’ of a clear mediative mind ripples the ocean of happiness. Equality and acceptance can be reached in any state, any time, anywhere, any how.

Once all is accepted only love with result .

Once you learn to love and not to live, to be loved and or unloved, talented or not, right or wrong, punctual or not, .. alive or not.

.  Without these unhappiness triggers only pleasure results. If anything goes wrong however unhappiness is one again born, because you want something else the spell of bliss is broken and you return to ‘reality/hell/sadness/struggle.

In and out of bliss we swing our entire lives, we feel love yet with out acceptance we loose it piece by piece.

Other than to accept what you have and are right now there is no way to feel oneness, navarna, happiess (what ever you may call this this you try to reach creating a paradox in itself).  One seed of dought or effort or needyness and *Boom* back to square one by creating your own unhappiness.

With or without a vessel we are the same, you will either die today or any time from now till when ever. Aceptance is all .

Breath or don’t breath

Think or don’t think

Live or die

Hate or Love

Wink or not

all things big or small should be treated equal.

Create or don’t

Be obese or not

All are the same

In pain or not

None of this promotes laziness because that would be denying what is front of our eyes, creating another block in the mind. We can all do what ever we wish in this dream, everything is here that we need, everything is available, everything can be ours. You just need to figure out what it is you actually want deep down.

They say here in Thailand, Mai pen rai. it means no worries, it means forget it, it means, it doesn’t matter. This is a common phrase used by all and when Bangkok got devastated by floods last year it was used a lot, something so simple as a phrase and mindset maybe why they call the Kingdom of Thailand, ‘the land of smiles’

Disagreements with this post or if you have any remarks, additives clearer ways or different angles of looking at it all, please leave a comment below.

I’ve been busy this week doing all sorts, mostly art, here is a collection of things I have accomplished this last week.

Custom wallet. Ill be making these and selling them to order, if anyone wants one please contact me from the hire me page of this site . All Leather, all made for you

This week has been full of art and music, plenty of nights up till 6 in the morning mixing and drawing or painting all day, I have almost finished my second piece on a wall here and planning a third. Tattoo orders have been coming in strong and I’ve written five articles for different people. Here are some process pictures of the wall I’ve been working on.

 

While traveling one of the biggest bonuses is getting to meet interesting people as you move around. People that have similar interests, view, and other people who have been in ridiculous situations and survived to tell the tale, with out these what are your grandkids going to listen to, right?

This week I’m taking a different approach with my blog. Everywhere I travel I meet amazing people, Bangkok included. This week I will interview Jeremy Sinsimer, just one of the many with tales that shock and disturb, but also someone who has exchanged the yearly day in, day out monotonous work in his home country, for adventure and a chance to live his passion.(photos throughout the interview are from the Reggae festival at you house, all taken by Jeremy)

Jeremy Sinsimer

First things first Jeremy, where are you from and how long have you been on the road?

I am from New York, and Ive’ been away from there for about 2 years off and on. But I;ve been in thailand for about 1 year

What was your occupation back home and what made you uproot and move half way around the world? Hey yeah, my occupation was basically odd jobs after graduating college. Working for a camping/travel supply store, a military museum, ushering for the opera…random stuff, completely unrelated to my studies.

How do you sustain you travels?
Now, I am working full time as an English teacher in Bangkok at a private English program school.

Your infatuation seems to be photography, what freedoms has Bangkok given you with following this passion?

Bangkok has provided me with several things. First, the city is visually really inspiring for me. I really enjoy talking with and then photographing people as they work or play, and in Bangkok a lot of work and play is done in the public spaces which makes it quite easy to photograph. In New York it isnt so common to walk down the street and have a mechanic fixing cars on the sidewalk.

Second, it’s cheap. In terms of rent, food transportation, and basic like cost of living expenses Bangkok is a lot cheaper than New York City. For half of what I paid in New York to get a, no joke, 1 meter tall Alice in wonderland looking room accessible by ladder in a loft in a not so great area of Brooklyn, I can afford my own studio apartment in Bangkok. The other important thing is that Bangkok provides a lot of services for a photographer. I can buy medium format 120 film, get it developed, and purchase a negative scanner whereas when I lived in Cairo, the city was cheap but not so many photo resources.

Has life become more interesting since you have started traveling? Tell us about when you first came to Thailand was anything as you expected?
Life has certainly become more interesting. I don’t think you’ll ever meet anyone who says traveling makes their life less interesting. And, um, yeah when I first got to Thailand I had decided to volunteer on a small organic farm run by a monk in a very remote area of the north. And yeah, it’s a really long story that I have told several times, so I am planning on just writing it all down.

But the basics are this. After about a week there I found out the monk was sexually assaulting women and a friend of mine and I, though the credit is mostly his, worked to shut down the whole place. People were trying to stop us, the monk was going crazy, I slept with rice sickle under my pillow (not really sure how I was gonna use that but it made me feel better), and then there was an attempted kidnapping, and death threats. Haha it was pretty nuts. I’ll write the whole story and send it to you.

Unbelievable, you defiantly would get much of that at home. Thailand is an adventure, paradise and catastrophe for those who aren’t carful. The nights I go out I see a lot of ladyboys flaunting there stuff, have you had problems with them?
Well, not really problems. I mean there’s the sometimes awkward mistaken identity thing, haha but it’s not such a huge deal. There was one time that a ladyboy, I think trying to help me but I’m still not sure, kind of took me far away from where I wanted to go. I like to joke that she kidnapped me but it wasn’t that violent, nor does it have much to do with her gender.

I think it was more of a misunderstanding than anything else. Anyway, I basically arrived in the same van as this ladyboy, into a town that was unfamiliar to me.

They dropped us off on what i thought was the outskirts of town and she seemed concerned about where I was going. Her sister was coming she said and then she could give me a ride to a guesthouse she knew. Not knowing where I was or what was around I agreed as her sisters truck showed up. I was wearing this ridiculous red shirt I got in New York that said “It kinda tastes like a first kiss.” it was for this drink company my friend was promoting.

Anyway, I’m in the truck bed and we are cruising, not towards town but rather away from town, haha. I think to myself, maybe it’s just a rural town? Hmmm. And the first turn we make after a while was into a random Buddhist temple. There are a lot of people there and it seems like some sort of a party.

The car stops, the ladyboy gets out and says “We stay here and eat, my grandfather…he die” I look around, everyone is wearing black, and I realize, I am at a fucking funeral.

And I’m there wearing a stupidly bright red tshirt that says “It kinda tastes like a first kiss.”

I sit down at one of the tables and these kids come over and just stared at me. I try to amuse them by speaking to them in Thai but they remained pretty motionless, and just continued to stare. Then this old creepy dude sits next to me and keeps pointing to things and saying the English word. I tried to speak to him in Thai but he seemed much more interested in this point and dictate game. He placed his hand on my lower back, not in a football coach or lieutenant kind of way, but in a very effeminate, tender way haha. He would point to a spoon and say “Spoon!” and then when I nodded he would give my lower back a little rub and laugh to himself. Suffice to say it was a pretty uncomfortable dinner.  This ladyboy then takes me to this “guesthouse” which I think was a trucker stop in the middle of nowhere. I was pretty freaked out haha. Luckily the next day I got back into town and was back on my way.

About your everyday life here, what do you cherish the most?
Food, probably. Cheap and easily accessible. As far as photography goes though, I’d have to say the approachability of people here is really nice. Easy to strike up a random conversation with a stranger and learn a little about their life.

Whats your advice for people who are working away in their home country, dream of travel but have trouble taking the first step?
It depends on why they are having trouble. If the trouble is buying the plane ticket, then yeah you gotta save up and it may take a while. After that though the trouble is mostly internal. Like, “do I really want to spend that much? What about a job?” and so on.

I can’t tell anyone what to do or that they need to travel, but personally I find it very important and enlightening in a lot of ways. But if it’s just a personal fear of the unknown, I promise you there are a lot of scarier places to try out traveling than Thailand. Thailand is pretty easy to be honest. And there’s a huge community of travelers here so much so that the real game becomes finding places where there aren’t so many tourists.

You have supplied most of the photos for this weeks blog, thank you for that. Is there somewhere that people can see you work?
Yeah no problem, and people can check out my Flickr account until I get my own site going.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sinsimer

What gear do you use, and what do you like taking pictures of most?
I shoot with a canon film camera, like a Ti or something like that. I kinda forget the model name of that one. A canon 30d, and a Rolleiflex 3.5 which is my favorite. I scan the photos from the canon film camera and the rolleiflex to my computer with a canon something something 9000 (also can’t remember what that’s called exactly… canoscan maybe?)
I like taking pictures of people the most. Usually portraits, and usually people working or playing in the public space. It’s kind of like free performance, to watch people work or play like that. Sometimes it feels like taking photos of a ballet, when the movement is frozen and people are arranged in a certain way and their body is arranged in a certain way.

I also like to take just very direct portraits. Just present people in a really simple way and you can maybe think about what that persons life is like or maybe connect with them by looking at their faces.

Can we expect anything big from you in the near future, and if so where can we see it?
I am currently working on a project where I am taking a photo studio set around Bangkok, usually by Tuk Tuk haha,  and taking photos of people working and playing.

Epic, we will all watch your flicker for that. One more question and you can finish that beer. Do you want to go down the road and get a spicy papaya salad?
Yes! Haha, and sticky rice?

Till next week folks. Thanks so much for the donations that have been coming in, every little bit helps.

MD

A children's learning project that I have begun, describing opposites