Kjell Hahn

there are many art studios around the tourist areas of thailand. at first i kind of dismissed these since they display fairly dull portraiture, but i went into a few places and found i actually had a lot in common with the owners. most of the people i talked to had works they sold at the front of the store to make ends meet but had their own projects developing on the side. one such artist named Yoi i met on the island of phuket near kata beach.
we ended up hanging out for 3 days and i recommend anyone passing by to look him up. tucked away behind the buddah paintings and tourist portraits he had some works i really liked produced in a bangkok slaughterhouse.

so, i was in thailand for 10 days for two reasons 1)my japanese visa had run out and 2) i had gotten too anxious worrying about working and my artwork. I needed a restart and didnt have much money. i spent a short time in bangkok but quickly headed south looking for a less hectic environment.
here are some photographs from my little canon g10. i wrote descriptions on most of the photos.
(note: *you can keep clicking on the images to zoom in.
*i know the spacing of the images isnt correct. still waiting for an update for the blog software)

back from the thailand trip so there will be regular posts again.
over the next couple of days I will post images from there as well as some work from some local artists i met on Phuket island.
My last day there I was walking down Khaosan Road in Bangkok and came across this graffiti of former president bush. if americans dont realize exactly how the rest of the world felt about the US the last 8 years i think this wall sums it up nicely.

khaosan road: fuck bush

srry, no new posts for the next week. had to make a visa run to thailand.
Im just sippin beerz on the island of phuket.

makin me a table.
my landlord, who happens to own a sawmill, gave me this big chunk of wood and said “make a table”
so here is the finished tabletop, just in time for the new year.

sitting next to my new table

i visited a nearby shrine, kotohira zinjya, a little way into the mountains near my house in onishi. the shrine is only 100 something years old, but walking around behind it into the forest I came across a small graveyard made from simple stones placed there over 300 years ago. the gravestones, uncut and probably taken from the riverbed or a nearby hillside, have an intimate character to them. overgrown with moss they stand upright without obstructing the landscape. they made me think of graveyards back home and how they’re almost like golf courses, a big thumb print that forces itself into whatever environment its built over. obviously someone has keep up maintenance on the area but its nice to know it doesnt require fertilizer, lawnmowers and regularly hacking away at the earth to do so.