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Members' Open: RESIST
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Artist’s interpretation: Here, I present one of my most unique sailboats paintings, (Thai) Sunflower. It highlights a little-known Thai concept about sunflowers resisting the sun, as opposed to facing or turning toward away from it. Most Westerners believe the flowers follow and turn toward the light. In Thailand, however, sunflowers are viewed as resisting the sun. They stand tall against it. They do not turn away from it. They are not scared of it. They resist the sun. The Thai word for sunflower, in fact, roughly translates to “a flower resisting the sun”. In this painting, I resisted the urge to go with the obvious images of resistance. Flowers are typically thought of as images for growth, life, beauty, purity, love, joyfulness and abundance. I chose the exact opposite, to invite the viewers to have a shift in typical thought.
In this painting, a boat is positioned in the sunflowers. As I usually paint them set in the free-flowing movement of wind and waves, I have this one in a field of sunflowers, a very hostile environment for a boat to exist—an inhibiting resistance. I chose this image precisely because even though boats and sunflowers both need water to survive, they are symbols of strength and success, even in the harshest of environments like heat, sun or drought. They are tolerant. They are adaptable. They thrive and resist, despite harsh elements and circumstances.
In this painting, a boat is positioned in the sunflowers. As I usually paint them set in the free-flowing movement of wind and waves, I have this one in a field of sunflowers, a very hostile environment for a boat to exist—an inhibiting resistance. I chose this image precisely because even though boats and sunflowers both need water to survive, they are symbols of strength and success, even in the harshest of environments like heat, sun or drought. They are tolerant. They are adaptable. They thrive and resist, despite harsh elements and circumstances.
