King of my Heart

Today I went in search for the littlest of our Young Lion kiddos, (Young Lions is an a art workshop we hold in our front yard for the local Burmese refugee kids) and back a short, trash strewn soi I found dozens of families crammed into a tiny, broken down house. Once you understand the life these children lead you also start to realize how small projects like the one we hold in our front yard, can mean so much to them. This little guy held my hand on the way back to the office and we skipped and jumped and chased our shadows all the way home. He stole my heart with his beautiful long lashes and stunning smile.

Self Potrait #9

I've had a ton of different portrait ideas pouring into my brain since we started this self portrait craziness. Part of the challenge for me, is to see if I can take what I have in my current surroundings vs. what I can do in photoshop, and create my ideas. Well, with this one I definitely broke my promise with Liz Lauer to not be so creepy. Sorry Liz!
I figured I tackled the closet last week and of course the natural progression from there is definitely bottles... ;) My concept was pent up emotion, how we bottle up our emotions and shove them down deep inside...I'm sure if we could see our internal storage system of things we've failed to deal with, it would look something like this. Only with TONS more bottles...hmm...maybe that would help this image...This idea of heads in a jar isn't that novel and I'm still tweaking the outcome (all suggestions and comments welcome!), but the feeling of being able to have this portrait in my mind (yes ok maybe i'm a wee twisted) and figuring out the way to make it reality was challenge enough for me to tackle it.
Oh, one more thing:
Dear Photoshop, I ❥ you!

Take a peek at a 1810 Inge Kathleen here! :)

"Foreigners come and abuse the children badly in our country."

These are words and similar messages I heard this morning at the human trafficking prevention conference this morning that brought a number of local and international orgs together in hopes to join forces and start to create a network of protection for these young children and adults who fall prey to trafficking. Each Friday I usually post my "Favorite things" from the past week, however I would like to change it up this week and as I am not thinking very happy thoughts today.

        We have been working with the New Life Center, a partnering org that provides a safe refuge for young women who have been trafficked, to create an interactive maze for the MTV Exit concert to stop the exploitation. These girls wrote their personal messages and hope for the future and artwork that hopefully 30,000 concert goers will have the chance to view here in Chiang Mai.  Above are examples of a couple completed panels.

    It is hard to imagine anything more horrible than the sex trafficking of young boys and girls. The staggering statistics just here in Thailand and hearing the heart rending stories of those who have lived this reality, literally makes my heart throb. My anger towards the individuals when benefit and find pleasure in this trading of flesh is staggering. How can people be so horrible to one another?! How can men with wives and children of their own, come to another country and be such monsters?!

   Today I wanted to dedicate my blog post to what I believe to be one of the most horrible occurrences happening today! I know "Human Trafficking" is a word that we can easily be disassociate with because it feels so far away from us, especially those living in the states, it's not our direct reality, however human trafficking still occurs even in the states and it is the horrible reality of so many little children and adults around the world. There should be no tolerance in our world for this sort of behavior and as a global community, please help by supporting people, organizations and causes that dedicate their time and resources to preventing and protecting against this carnage.

Thank you!

Below is one of my favorite songs that I  wanted to share:

 

  "It's not about win or lose 

cause we all lose
when they feed on the souls of the innocent
blood drenched pavement

   One day this all will change
treat people the same
stop with the violence
down with the hate
  One day we'll all be free and proud to be
under the same sun singing songs of freedom like"

 

Self Portrait #8

So life has been crazy busy these days. A part of me congratulates myself for stuffing life so full that I can't find the time to do photography...This might sound strange coming from a person who is having a mad love affair with her camera and even thought about naming her...But you know you're doing something right when life is so vibrant and busy that it equals that feeling of clicking the shutter button! Plus I truly believe that every photographer should have a camera-less quota they must fill every week. There is a huge difference experiencing life from behind your camera vs. in front of it. The true goal is to be so good you can do both simultaneously with great flare and personality! ;)

So this morning I hauled my carcass out of bed at 6am to shoot my self portrait...had an internal debate as to whether i could physical get the wardrobe down the huge twisting stairs and out to the front yard...decided the probability of injury was greater than success and proceeded to tear my bedroom completely apart (and when i say completely i mean there is a couch currently sitting on my bed). Then I shoved myself into all sorts of awkward spaces, all before my morning cup of coffee.

This week on the job, we've been dealing a lot with human trafficking. Human trafficking statistics: who is affected, what countries it occurs in most, and what it looks like here in Thailand. We are partnering with MTV-Exit, who will be putting on a concert on June 25th here in Chiang Mai, to end human trafficking and promote awareness. Our ARI team is working one-on-one with a partnering org who provides a safe home for girls who have escaped from being trafficked, to create artwork and messages for the maze. The more you learn about this horrible occurrence, the more you start to look at the people around you in a different way. The sweet faced little Burmese girls who fill our yards with the happy sounds of laughter every Thursday, they are so vulnerable to this that it makes my heart hurt.

When I started shooting this self portrait, I was thinking about how we are forced into places, consigned to boxes, and put into roles that aren't exactly our own and don't fit. As I was editing the images in photoshop, I started to see visual similarities between my poses and the images from our human trafficking research. In a way human trafficking is the ultimate way of being forced into a role that is not your own.

Learning about human trafficking and working with people who have been victimized by it, changes your whole perspective on the men and women you see working the streets. It makes me absolutely LOATH the dirty little middle aged western men who come to Thailand for a very particular and horrible purpose. Some days I am just too embarrassed to be a Westerner in this world, and that is not something I typically say. "Western" has a very different meaning and connotation to many Thai people. Some days I feel like I can never do enough good to make up for all the horrible bad in this world and that is the most terrible feeling!

 After 8 consecutive self portrait craziness, we're still going strong! Check out missy Inge's beautiful creation this week: Inge Kathleen blog.

FRUIT! I'm a fruit-a-holic! Me and fruit are one...well at least when it's inside my tummy that is. As you can imagine, I am in fruit heaven here in Thailand! Little fruit ladies can spot a softy a mile away and start waggling their eyebrows and hand fulls of papayas and mangos in my direction when they see me coming.

My good friend Reid likes to say, "You are what you eat." Yes, I totally embrace my fruity side and just for future reference, if you need to ask a favor or have bad news, or good news, or no news...(hmm getting off track here)..it's ALWAYS better accompanied with a basket of fruit...hand fulls of mangos...pineapples peaking out of your bag!! Just sayin'...

So I've had this fascination with movement lately. There is just something I love about the unpredictability of long time exposures and human movement. When you look at the back of your camera it's like Christmas every time! Colors and smears and lines...gosh it's a gorgeous thing when it works. The world can be such a fascinating place when it's out of focus! But then again I was also one of those children who would lay on my back in the grass for hours staring at the world from between my squinted lashes or behind closed eye lids because it made everything look so different. (yes, yes, strange child I know) Long exposure photography is sorta like that for me...laying on my back and watching the world through my camera's blurry eyelid.

Self Portrait #7

Whew, busy busy whirlwind weekend with loads of good things happening, but not so much time for shooting. I'm a bit of a gimp these days with two lovely scraped up legs that make me hobble around like a 90yr old, but I made it to first base, I did! (I'm maybe a little too competitive when it comes to sports) So this is a bit of an older self portrait that will have to be a stand in until the old ticker gets back to...ticking! ;)

Anyone who knows me knows I can kill the most hardy of plants. My sisters even went as far as to buy me cacti for a birthday prezzie because they knew how much I LOVE green things in the house, but it's the remembering to water them bites me in the butt. Let's just say the cactus was found dead as a doornail a few months later. There is just no Mandy-proof plants on the market these days! My trail of plant carnage has left me with minus karma points and I've spent a life time trying to make sweet to mother nature. But really, whose fault is it that I was born with a brown thumb anyways?! *cough cough nudge nudge*

Check out the Inge Binga self portrait greatness of the week!

Goofy tan lines from work always bring a smile...to both my face and those who are lucky enough to see me running around like this! Yesterday, I boasted to a friend about sitting outside a coffee shop doing grant writing research and karma paid me back kindly with the most hilarious looking tan line ever! Now I just gotta figure out how to lose this baby before the weekend! But on the flip side, I'm sorta getting attached to it, every time i look down i'm reminded that A. i live in a fantastic tropical place and B. I never have to experience winter ever gain! :)

"Home"
Being footloose for a few years will make you start to think about the word, "home.' It could be your memory of that grey asbestos childhood home in Lynn IN, with its huge old dilapidated barn whose sloping roof you used as a sledding hill (because Indiana is so flat they couldn't manage to make any natural ones of their own). Until your mom found the bum ripped out of every single one of your snow pants from the roofing nails and banned your slipping, sliding fun permanently. Or maybe it's that big white house near Williamsburg, IN, where you used to lay on the warm, broad back of your old quarter horse for hours watching the clouds drift by and listening to him munch and gurgle. Or all the number of apartments you lived in for college, internships? Maybe it's that tiny one roomed Yangsu-ri digs (that turns into an icebox in the winter) with the rows of windows looking out over the Korean village square and you could hear soju soaked Korean shouts in the wee hours of the morning. Or Chiang Mai, where two dogs wait for you to come home with sad brown eyes (my personal weakness) and mangoes fall from trees in the middle of the night sounding like bombs on the tin roof, but make you dream dreams of sweet, sweet mango-ness.
Really, you set up home in all sorts of places with all sorts of different objects; sometimes even other people's objects, and you start to realize that home isn't a place or time, isn't a state or country, or even a house.
Home is where the heart is!
(Oh yes, I totally was just that corny!;)

Does anyone else get the odd compulsion to cart out all the living room furniture to the yard and set up shop? I'm telling ya, it's the best seat in the...(wait for it)...home! ;)

Ever seen Inge Kathleen's barbarian side? Nope?! Me either! Take a peak here!

This month has been brimming full of new adventures, discoveries, and friends! Moving to Thailand, getting to know the CCT family, and meeting incredible new volunteers and friends has been an exciting experience! I would post all my great memories if I could, but there are to many to fit, so here are just a few fun moments from the past month. Happy June everyone!

One fine Saturday, I hopped on the back of a motorbike and was transported up a windy mountain road to the most beautiful mountain top temple in Chiang Mai. So much blinding gold and chattering people and deep jungle colors set my photo brain a-whirl. We sipped coffee and listen to the bells ring as people circled and circled. Here's to good friends, great conversations, and new adventures!