Welcome to Students Incorporated. I'm your host, Mr. Jason. Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun, and uplifting. This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International Community School of Bangkok.
Hello and welcome back to the show. My name is Mr. Jason and I'm joined again by co-host Mia and Frank. Today's episode is sponsored by the Design Workshop 101 club, whose mission is to foster a vibrant community where its members can explore diverse design principles, engage in hands-on projects, and develop their skills through collective learning and mentorship. Find out more about this club during our PSA announcement between the first and second segment.
Alright, moving on. In today's episode, we have the privilege of talking with Mrs. B. Chanita, a well-known local artist based out of Bangkok. Her paintings, artwork, and creativity have gained popularity both domestically and internationally. But before we get into our first segment with Mrs. B., let's hear our quote of the day and get some headline art-heisting news.
Our quote of the day comes from Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and a playwright. He stated to have said, no great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Well, creativity is what makes a person an artist, and it is what everyone in this world has to some extent. I mean, it's a lifestyle. A traffic cone can be taken as an ice cream cone, and even a muddy puddle can be seen as a trampoline.
What allows this to happen is creativity. Artists utilize creativity to express themselves in their creation, which is one way to show the world who they really are. It's no different from athletes and their performance in their stadium. Their creativity and way of expression sets them apart from others. Don't forget. Everyone is unique. Yes, all 8 billion of us and counting. And that's our quote of the day. Now onto some headline news with Mia.
Thank you for our quote of the day, Frank. Because our episode today is focused on the topic of art, we thought we'd bring you three famous art-heist stories.
Our first headline heist dates back to 1911 at the Louvre in Paris, France. A former Louvre employee used his knowledge of the museum to steal the Mona Lisa in 1911. He hid overnight in a supply room with two accomplices and dressed like the cleaning staff, and then took the painting off the gallery wall the following day. He kept the masterpiece in his Paris apartment for two years until he was caught trying to sell it to the director of a gallery in Florence, Italy.
He received a seven-month reduced prison sentence, claiming that the reason he stole the painting was to return it back to the Italian people. Our next art heist comes from Montreal.
In 1972, thieves broke into the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts through a skylight, which was under repair, and bound three guards. They stole 39 jewelry objects and 18 paintings, including works by Delacroix, Rubens, and Rembrandt, valued at over $2 million at that time.
The Rembrandt alone was worth $1 million. None of the stolen items have been recovered, and by 2003, the Rembrandt's value had increased 20-fold, with speculation that the Montreal mafia may have been involved.
Finally, our last headline comes from 2002 from Amsterdam, Netherlands, when thieves used a ladder to break into the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and stole two early paintings. The theft occurred as the museum prepared to celebrate van Gogh's 150th birthday.
The works remained missing until 2016, when Italian authorities discovered them in a farmhouse near Naples, linking the theft to the Camorra mafia. Several traffickers were arrested, and the paintings were returned to the public.
Museum director Axel Ruger called it a great day. And that ends our famous and historical Art Heist news for this episode.
Thank you for the quote in the headline news. As we jump into our first segment with Mrs. B, I'd have to say that it's fun being able to have you visit us in our podcast studio, and I hope we will be able to visit you or take a field trip to your studio in the near future as well.
Alright, let's jump into our first segment. Mia will start us off with our first question.
Hi Mr. Jason and hello, we're very excited to have you here in the studio with us. So let's get started with the first question. Could you please introduce yourself and then give us some background on how you were introduced to art, or how you got started in this career.
Hi, first of all, I have to thank you for having me today. I really appreciate it. And it started, I actually, when I was very young, I didn't know what I want. I didn't know that what I interested in.
But I just live my life the way I have to. So I went to Australia for study, try to study English to become a flight attendant. I worked for Thai Airways for 12 years.
But at that time I feel the first two years okay. But then after that I feel not fit in. I don't feel well. I, but I know one thing that I different from other, which is, I love art.
Everywhere I go, I just turn to museum and end up in like old street, like take a picture of the old city or something like that. So I know that I'm different from other.
Yeah, I try to practice my painting, but it's not going well at that time. And then I, but I keep going, keep trying for many years and put myself into artists, Thai artists, and make friends with them and put myself in their world.
And I get realize that, oh, I love their life, not just except art, but all what they do. I mean, writing, live their life as an artist, think as an artist, and enjoy life.
So it's become my life then. And at that time I had so many exhibition, selected exhibition and also solo exhibition. But it's still, it's still like a hobby because I have to make money.
And then I become like a little bit sick of working as a flight attendant. And after that I, I got married. And then I have my son, I stopped painting for four years, because I think to be a mother is a first priority.
And then one day I took a picture of my son, and I think, oh, I never put a picture on the wall. People don't do that anymore. So I think, oh, maybe I can paint him. I don't know. Let's try.
So I went to my hang up call and start paying him. And I see the painting is like, oh my god, I can paint. I still can paint and I can paint the thing that I never think that I can, which is portrait.
Yeah, so nine years ago, I start paint portrait. And that's become my, my dream come true, because I can paint every day. And I get lucky to have a customer, clients to order my painting.
Okay, thank you for your answer. Like I'm obviously like super in awe of your work. And I think that you know like the road like from a flight attendant to like an artist. I think that was probably very rough on you. So like props to you for you know, doing what you really love and really chasing your dreams. Thank you for that.
And now we also learned that you took a recent trip to the UK. And so maybe you could tell us about, you know, where you went and if you visited any museums or anything like that. Yes, I went to England.
Actually, I've been to England, like, when it was flight attendant. So I didn't go there for 10 years, more than 10 years. But it's still London. London is London. Yeah, it's everywhere, London, and I can sense everything about it, which like antique building, beautiful street and people.
But one thing that I found that so many tourists, but I went to Thayette Modern National Gallery and Pest, you know, Pest Gallery, so many places. And yeah, it's like everywhere I go, the first thing that I'm going to visit is, of course, museum.
Yeah, that's definitely an interesting experience. Now, actually, I went to the UK, but like a long time ago, I did went to a National Gallery too, I think because I was like maybe like seven or eight. And all I remember was this red bus. That's all I remember is this red bus. But yeah, so yeah.
Our next question is, how to describe your artistic style to someone who may not be familiar with this type of style.
I would say expressionism, because I work from inside out. I mean, I paint portraits. I work as a portrait artist. But then after like two or three years, after I got my first solo exhibition, I feel that it's time me to let go and stop doing it, because I cannot tell more.
When I paint portraits, I think about that person, how I feel about them. But it's not my feeling. I mean, I have more to say. So I think that if I remove person from the painting, what's it going to be?
Because I didn't learn in school about art. So every piece of my painting is like my class, I learned from working. So expressionism, actually, I don't want to describe everything like to be like that kind of that kind.
But if you work a lot, you know that you need to stop doing it, because it's not you anymore. People change. My mind change. And I want to do more, to experiment more.
So I removed the person and I got the blank canvas, the white one, which I don't know what to paint. So I stuck with it like months. And yeah, just paint it, which I don't know what it is, what it's called. It's called expressionism? Impressionism? I don't know.
Landscape. I don't know, but I just paint. So what I paint is feeling what I want to say, how I feel.
All right. I really liked how you explained, you know, like the whole concept of expressionism, because as someone who isn't very familiar with expressionism, because usually like I'm taking art class right now and we're learning a lot about impressionism.
So thank you for explaining, you know, that side of expressionism to me. All right. My next question is a follow up to Frank's question. And the question is, what does abstract expressionism mean to you personally?
For me, it's like language. For example, if I want to paint flowers, I paint how I feel. How it's fuzzy, how it's soft, freedom, grounded, that's what I paint. I don't know how it looks like.
This is definitely a great take on it. And my actually, she actually enjoys art too. But unfortunately she actually has stopped doing art in like college because she believes that she won't be able to find a job after that.
Because like, is it the same for you when you first got into art? Like did you have like problems like, hey, can I find a job? Like going into like this artistic more career?
Of course. Yes. You have to live in. For me, I think it's important to start with it anyway. I mean, you can get the job, work and do what you have to do.
But don't let go of your soul. I mean, for me, it's like, I think seven years working for Thai Airways, but I still paint at home crying every time when they call me to fly. But I have to, you know, life is life.
And one day it's going to become what you want or don't, or it's not going to happen. We cannot tell. But you're not going to regret when you're getting old that you never try.
Gotcha. So moving on to our next question is how or where do you find your inspiration?
Everywhere from everyone. I mean, yeah, of course I have a concept when I have an exhibition, but actually I got exhibition. Sometimes I got curator to give me the concept to work on it.
But normally my inspiration is like what I'm thinking, what I'm thinking about right now and what I realize about life because I love to grow up every day. And I realized that when I work in my studio, that time it's made me realize life more.
Sometimes I got inspiration from traveling, from problem, from mistake, from what I see and what happened in life. Some people, some artists, they work other way. It's okay. It depends on like,
but for me, like, for example, I went to, I just came back from New Zealand and we planned the road trip for 11 nights in Kapa When. So I prepared everything in my bag for my son or my family.
But when we landed and the bag is not come full bag, nothing, just only handbag. So what I'm going to do, I stuck there like two days calling and fighting because I was flight attendant. So I know what the system is.
And I think New Zealand is so beautiful. I'm going to stack my mind with that bag, which I don't know why is it or just let it go and move on. Yeah, so I come back to Thailand and I make one silly name, necessary, unnecessary, that I remove all the layers and layers and layers that I know that I can put it on.
It's going to be perfect. I just need something that I really need in the painting and that like become the concept of my work. Every time of my series is become like that.
Yeah, that was really well said. And I like how you're able to kind of work with what you want for in an art piece, but also work with what like the curator wants and somehow like articulated to make it your own painting. I think that's really special.
All right. And for our final question for the segment, is there a piece of artwork that you are most proud of?
That's very difficult because it's not too much to say that I love every single piece of my work, of course, because when I finish, it's like I see myself standing there, beautiful, ugly, silly, but I accept that it's me. So every piece that I think is finished is like my life. It's like me.
So I cannot I cannot throw my work that I don't feel it's really me. It's like betray. So if you ask me which one I'm proud of myself, every piece is like, yeah, I just did it. I did it again.
Okay, thank you. And that concludes our first segment. We'll be right back with more from Mrs. B right after this short PSA announcement.
Now on to our PSA. Today we'll be introducing the Design and Workshop Club here at ICS. Now the main goal for this club is for members to turn their ideas into real products while simultaneously learning to develop them into real life businesses one day.
The Design and Workshop Club values creative vision and teamwork that provides them with diverse perspectives to drive their design process. Their mission is to foster a vibrant community where members can explore diverse design disciplines, engage in hands-on projects, and develop their skills through collective learning and mentorship.
They also offer diverse projects throughout the quarters, and for this semester, this workshop will be working on designing hoodies and clothing. In the next quarter, they will be working on other items to design and create an item that their club members are currently voting on designing.
This club is committed to providing art opportunities to all students, and they are achieving this by working on live projects with small local businesses, or even going to workshops where they'll get to teach nursery students that maybe don't have opportunities to learn or create art.
You can find them at ics.designworkshop101 in Instagram. However, if you have any further questions, you can email Cian at 25Cian, which is S-I-E-U-N underscore C, at students.ics.ac.th.
And we are back with our second segment with well-known Thai artist Mrs. B. Chanita. We have a few more questions for Mrs. B., and then we'll end this second segment with a top 10 list titled, The Top 10 Most Popular Artistic Styles of All Time.
Mia will lead us off again with our first question for this segment.
All right, Khun V, we know that your artwork has been hung in a lot of different galleries and, you know, spaces in Thailand. So for our first question, we would like to ask, could you share with us some places where your art has been displayed?
Right now?
Yeah.
Actually, right now I don't have any exhibition. It's just finished. But you can find my painting at Sentara Grand Hotel in Lopi. I guess you've seen that. And right now I have one more, the big piece is like 400 cm. River City is the ground floor. And also you can come to visit my art studio.
That's definitely a cool place to have your art displayed. It's definitely like a milestone to have your art displayed in public. So one more thing is, what themes do you usually follow when you create your artwork?
Themes, yeah. No, I don't have.
Just off your brain?
Yeah, I have a feeling and what I want to. Sometimes it's like it happens when you shower. Sometimes it happens when you, when I see my son doing something and inspiring me to do that and I realize that things in life.
Sometimes it's just like a very small thing like flowers from the concrete or something like that. Or sometimes look up and you talk about the universe. It's happened to me. I mean, I don't know what others is, but the theme is not important than what you really want to say. I think it's like my artwork is like telling stories sometimes.
Yeah, for sure. And I think with questions like this, like when you're asking like, oh, like what theme do you stick to? I think what most people are expecting from you is like, oh, I'm sticking to this, say nature theme or I'm going to stick to this like universal kind of theme.
I don't know what you're expecting from me. I'm just like, yeah, I'm sticking to this, say nature theme or I'm going to stick to that like universal kind of theme.
I think your answer, you know, really reflects that. What does the theme longevity mean to you? Longativity, it's happened when I worked with Ice Space by Mocha, the Act Four Season Hotel.
And the curator want to talk about longevity and lead artists to study and work on it. So for me, longevity is like, at first I think, oh, longevity is going to be like a very big one.
And then I saw my son and I think, yeah, if you want to have a longevity, you have to have like, for me to be a good mother for him. And what I did, I gave him milk and light from the sun that gives life to growing everything.
And so that's like my answer. So I use gold paint, I use white color. And then I work on it's like blessing. When my son going out, I blessing him to be safe and have a good life.
And he will remember that's the basic of life to be a longevity. Yeah, thank you for your answer. I think that, you know, like what you said about life, it does relate a lot to longevity.
And I think that, you know, life and longevity, it's like, it's presented every day. It's like you see it every day. You see it in your son's face or before he goes out and stuff like that.
So yeah, thank you for your answer. All right, my next question is, what are some common themes or feelings that you want to convey in your artwork?
I think it's like life, what I paint or what I think about all the time that I work on it. I think about life, about how you live, like peace and happy life, how to do it.
I have one silly name, Phoenix. It's quite dark. And that I'm talking about, people can rebonding many times.
But you have to sacrifice your own self, your own thing, your own belief and change it, grow and just do something new.
Like I compare with myself that I change a lot from time to time. And every time I change or I want new thing to happen, I have to live something that I used to believe or I used to do it.
So if you say, ask me about what I want to say, it's like growing.
Very cool. I really appreciate people who can express or convey what they really want to, because there's a lot of people who can't convey what they really feel.
And so we like to typically end our podcast by our guest segments by asking for advice.
So our final question is, why would you give advice to young artists who love art?
I think about that. Commit. Yeah. Important to be committed. Sometimes goal in your life is just you like it, you love it, you interested in it, but you're not committed.
If you commit, you're going to be stuck with it. Right? And if you are an artist, you're still an artist.
I mean, if you work as an accountant, you may be a doctor, but you're an artist.
Artists is not a career. It's not a career. It's life. You can be everyone can be. I would say just enjoy process.
Enjoy the process and be sincere what you're working on and be honest to who you are.
Good advice. Definitely. All right. Thank you for that great advice and for joining us here today.
I really like the part where you can encourage young artists to be true to yourself and be committed.
And we all know that once you have a purpose and especially if you go into something you really love to do, that purpose kind of also demands that you're committed to it.
Anyways, thank you for that great advice. It's been an honor to meet you in person and we are anxious to be able to come visit you in your studio, hopefully in the near future.
So thank you again. Thank you.
Moving on now and to end this second segment, we'd like to share a top 10 list with you and it's titled the top 10 most popular artistic styles of all time.
And this is according to our in-depth scientific research, of course, to give us this list.
I've asked multiple team members to help us out. So Rebecca is going to start us out with number 10.
Coming in at number 10 is the Renaissance. The Renaissance style focuses on realism, humanism, and proportion. An example of this style would be Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
Number nine is a Baroque style. The Baroque style focuses on dramatic use of light, motion, and tension. An example of this style would be Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew.
Impressionism comes in at number eight. The Impressionism style captures the effects of light and color through loose brushwork. An example of this style would be Claude Monet's Water Lilies.
Number seven is the style called Cubism. The Cubism style deconstructs subjects into geometric shapes and abstract forms.
An example of this style would be Pablo Picasso's Self-Portrait of Himself, titled Portrait of Pablo Picasso.
Coming in at number six is the style of Surrealism. The Surrealism style is dreamlike, includes bizarre imagery and scenes, often explores the unconscious mind.
An example of this style would be Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory.
At number five on our list is Abstract Expressionism. The Abstract Expressionism style emphasizes spontaneous emotional expression through non-representational forms.
An example of this style would be Jackson Pollock's number five.
Art Nouveau comes in on the list as number four. The Art Nouveau style is decorative and includes flowing lines and organic shapes that are inspired by nature.
An example of this style would be Gustav Klimt's The Kiss.
Realism is number three on the list. The Realism style portrays subjects in a true-to-life manner without idealization.
An example of this style would be Gustav Courbet's The Stonebreakers.
And number two is Pop Art. The Pop Art style draws on popular culture and often includes bold colors and commercial imagery.
An example of this style would be Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol.
And finally, for number one, we have the style of Minimalism.
Minimalism strips art down to its essentials with simple shapes and monochromatic palettes.
An example of this style would be Donald Judd's Untitled, 1967.
And there you have it, the top ten most popular artistic styles of all time.
Well, at least that's what our scientific and in-depth research seemed to tell us.
And as I close out this second segment, I'd like to encourage you to go visit a museum or an art gallery and look at art.
Take your time while you're there, because sometimes spending time with art can be a peaceful and enjoyable escape from the noise and busyness of life.
As we end this episode, we'd like to give a big thanks again to Mrs. B for being our guest today.
Also, we want to thank the Design Workshop 101 Club again for helping sponsor this episode.
The Design Workshop 101 Club's mission is to foster a vibrant community where members can explore diverse design disciplines,
engage in hands-on projects, and develop their own skills through collective learning and mentorship.
Stay tuned for our next episode as we host a guest who will be talking to us about that transition period between university and your first career-focused job.
We'll also be sharing some mock interview questions along with the proper way to answer and the not-so-proper way to answer those questions.
And as always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives sharing copyright-free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time. We are Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.