“Close your eyes briefly. Think about one object that’s in the room and focus on it. Without opening your eyes, recall as much detail as you can about it. After three minutes or so, open your eyes and write about that object without looking at it.”
I have a painting in my room that a friend of mine did simply for the practice that I was enamored with since the first time I saw it. It’s the picture of a Thai drag queen whose photo my friend saw in a National Geographic magazine some years ago. She cut the picture out of the magazine, taped it onto the canvas on which she was going to be painting, and then replicated this photo of the drag queen while she was performing on stage. I wish I still had the original photo attached to the canvas because my friend really got the essence of what the original photographer was trying to capture, in terms of the energy and excitement exuding from this amazing drag queen persona.
The picture was a full body shot of the drag queen in her bright sunshine yellow and peach outfit on stage. My friend decided to do a close-up of the drag queen’s upper body to focus on the face and the way her hands were folded. The drag queen—we’ll call her Ti (“tee”) for truth—has this equally radiant smile on her face. A smile I can only equate to a performer on stage in her element. Any performer who has gotten on stage will do, as they all have that same I’m-back-home-again smile that just let’s you know you’re going to have a good time in their presence. I suppose it’s the same kind of a smile a child has either on Christmas morning when they receive that one thing they were really hoping for, or when a parent who’s been away comes back home. Either way, Ti’s got that smile.
Ti’s clothes are a light and flowing linen or silk—because when the different seasons change from hot, hotter, or hottest you need something that won’t cling to you while you’re working it on stage. The clothes kind of drape over her and would flow down to the ground and sway in the breeze to give her skinny little body some semblance of some curves. Her hair is pulled back into a bun or ponytail so you can see all of the laboriously applied makeup she’s so diligently used to highlight her cheekbones and to set back the clock a few years. The eye shadow is something reminiscent of the 70’s and for some reason ABBA come into mind as a frame a reference for this not-quite Thai hooker look she’s got going on.
The one hand we can see is turned up in mid pose that’s either been choreographed for the number she’s performing, or simply is that way because Ti knows the stage and how her body moves to maximize the effect of whatever she’s trying to show the audience. Her hand’s turned up in a way you could put a tray of drinks on it and they’d stay level, though Ti is far too glamorous to ever be a cocktail waitress…again. No, she’s here to entertain and her mostly local audience (her show’s done in Thai) adore her and she’s found her niche in life. She’s always been an entertainer and on stage is the only place she feels like she’s home and at peace in the world.
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