Today we’d like to introduce you to Ponnapa Prakkamakul.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up in an extended family of artists and musicians in Thailand, I learned how to draw and paint through watching my mother work in her studio. I remember observing her diligently make paper from mulberry pulp, silk cocoon, and tree bark to create a canvas for her prints and watercolor paintings. This made me realized that the essence of art emerges before the white paper, and continues to evolve beyond artist’s hands.
Apart from my family, the landscape from my childhood also has a strong influence on my work. When I was young, our house used to be considered the edge of Bangkok, and was surrounded by rice fields and fish ponds. I spent most of my time playing with mud, leaves, and whatever animals were in the fields. My favorite place was a pond filled with duckweed—I would use a stick to make drawings on water’s surface. Later on, this idea inspired me to use the Earth as a canvas, and I pursued a study in landscape architecture.
While earning a master degree in landscape architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, I started to use soil and found materials collected from the scene to make paintings. My goal is to create a greater connection between landscape, myself, and painting. I am currently a practicing landscape architect at Sasaki and just finished an artist-in-residence program at the Plumbing Museum. Both my design and paintings are place specific.
Please tell us about your art.
As a landscape architect making paintings, sites play an important role in my artwork. My work explores the use of the painting processes as a tool for experiencing and understanding the surrounding environment. The process begins at the site by using the performative act of searching, studying, and collecting natural painting materials in addition to sketching in situ—establishing a more immersive experience and engagement with the landscape. The manner of soaking paper into the river, for instance, creates an understanding of the profile of the water’s edge. The tree bark’s print on paper also imprints a memory of that tree in my mind. In the studio, the collected materials are applied on paper as the painting’s medium, representing the colors of the earth and texture of the leaves. For me, this process not only creates a connection between myself and the site but also allows me, who relocated to the United States in 2009, to form a deeper connection with places. Together with the feeling I have from engaging with the site, creating paintings that contain real color, texture, and scale of the materials expresses a new kind of interpretation and story for the viewers.
My current work exhibits a new painting medium discovered during the Manoog Family Artist-in-Residence program at the Plumbing Museum. Using the museum as the site, I grew and collected rust from metal plumbing equipment to make paintings and prints. Similar to plant materials, rust reacts to different level of air, moisture, and pH creating variety of textures and colors, such as, yellow, orange, shiny red, brown, and matte black. These variations also depend on the amount of time the materials were exposed to different environments. The process of growing rust was fascinating, and I thrived on the challenge of both creating a rust farm and exploring this new painting technique.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
I have been very fortunate in the opportunities I have had, but I know that many other artists struggle to find equal opportunities to share their work
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My artwork can be seen online at pprakkamakul.wixsite.com/pnnp and on Instagram @giftponnapa. Currently, my paintings are on exhibition at the Plumbing Museum (from now until August 27th) and Gallery 263 (from August 16th to September 12th). I also helped the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway design a hopscotch game installed next to the carousal on the North End Park.
Contact Info:
- Website: pprakkamakul.wixsite.com/pnnp
- Instagram: @giftponnapa
Image Credit:
Jom Ekpanith
Sasha Pafernova
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