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Rungsak Dokbua

"Can you believe it? One life can change everything for another life. I want to talk about my son who was born with tenderness, liveliness and kindness to bring to my life too. He has a tremendous influence on me – even for my art.

"Sawasdee krab. My name is Rungsak Dokbua and you can call me 'Rung' as well. I was born in a central Thai province in 1967. Yes, I am one whose people said that I had artistic talent since I was young. For my part, I believe that children who will become artists must love to draw and paint from childhood on. I was such a child. I loved to sketch on my books. I wanted to study painting in the university Fine Arts faculty after high school.

"I then decided to study for a master's degree in art. During that time I worked as a university art teacher. But I didn't finish the master's degree because I did not complete my thesis. I don't know what I was thinking. Thai people call this mood 'that artist feeling.' And yes, I have plenty of it in my body and my soul. I left the university and sought money. I had a good freelance job painting motorbike oil tanks and it made a lot of money for me. Then I went back to teaching painting in the university Fine Arts Faculty and retired only last year.

"At the university, I met an American art student and she became my girlfriend. After I met her, it's like my life was changed too. We traveled together to other countries – China, Nepal, the United States, Europe, India. Then three years later, we had a child.

"It's an amazing time for me. Before I had my son, my works always expressed the severe feelings in my mind. The movement of my brush was very rigid; the feeling it presented on the canvas was sadness, pretense and suffering. It may be because I was young and saw everything around me as bad. When an old girlfriend would break my heart, I'd paint huge, colorful and violent paintings to blow off my feelings. Before I met my American girlfriend, I was always drinking and smoking when I painted and I worked too much, maybe ten to twelve hours per day. My health suffered. I knew this, but I wasn't inspired to change.

"My son is my answer. I feel like I have more responsibility. His life is in my hands. He is so cute and I with him I feel alive. I no longer drink alcohol or smoke and my mind is calm. I don't know why it is like that, but it is. I have also become a vegetarian. For sure, my painting has changed like the other side of a coin. My painting now seems like flying in the sky. It's deeply calm and surrounded with natural things. Even its concept has changed to have more religious meaning. I found that I feel stable in my mind. My life is good and full.

"I decided to leave teaching because I want to have more time for my family. And I want more time to paint. I hope to travel to other countries again at least once a year. Traveling abroad inspires me to paint. To see other cultures, other lives is my favorite recreation. I hope I can develop my painting to have more style and more meaning too."

Dokbua has held solo exhibitions throughout Thailand, and has participated in collective exhibits at the University of Colorado (1998), in Singapore (1997), and at Naropa University (U.S.A., 1996).