For Bangkok poetry scenesters, Kathy MacLeod needs no introduction. For those that don’t know: She’s half-Thai, half-American and her comics will give you the warm and fuzzies. Her work —illustrated children’s book style but with adult content — has been shown at WTF’s poetry nights and TCDC’s Cartooning and Animation Exhibition. Now, she’s busy with putting some finishing touches on a public mural on Sukhumvit soi 51, a foreshadowing for her first exhibition at WTF next month.
Clay: How’s the mural doing?
Kathy: I finished [it], but the alley was almost completely dark. I’m not even sure how it looks. Maybe I’ll see it in the day and all the lines will be crooked or something. Or smudges everywhere.
Clay: I think you’re being hard on yourself.
Kathy: Yeah. I’m kind of a perfectionist.
Clay: What’s the mural all about?
Kathy: It’s mostly about the community that surrounds the little WTF alleyway. There are so many little niches just in that soi alone and makes a pretty unique atmosphere I think. There are two Japanese restaurants and then there’s this “massage parlour” across the street with lots of girls sitting out front and then you have WTF and Opposite and Zudrangma, so, hipsterville.
Clay: I’ve always wondered about that massage parlour.
Kathy: On Christmas day there was a private party at Opposite, and we looked out the window and the girls at Camy Lip (the massage parlour) were having their own party with tiki torches and balloons and even a dunking booth. I kind of wanted to go join their party. I put those girls into the mural and made this imaginary story for them.
Clay: What’s the story?
Kathy: There’s this look-chin vendor who’s always in the soi and I put him in the mural, and the story for him is that he’s secretly in love with one of the girls. I wonder if he’s going to see it and it’ll make it awkward for them.
Clay: The thought bubbles in your piece don’t have words, which differs from your comic. Why did you decide on that?
Kathy: It hints at a bigger narrative, and I think, visually it makes the mural more appealing—because you have the world of soi 51 but inside the characters’ heads, you get to see other places and other things happening.
Clay: You’re usually in your comics. Are you in the mural as well?
Kathy: I did put myself in the mural, but mostly it’s about the WTF alleyway community. It makes it “meta” or something.
Clay: Why don’t you use a fictitious character?
Cathy: I can’t help [putting] myself [in the comic] though. It’s like a signature. Since my art (i.e. my comics) is usually about me, I feel like I need to insert myself in there in some way like I’m the narrator of this world and this is how I’m seeing it.
Clay: Most people find your comics through your blog or social networking. Do random people ever introduce themselves to you?
Kathy: It happens at parties sometimes – usually it’s friends of friends who will mention it when I’m introduced to them, but yeah, every once in a while someone completely random will bring it up. People are sometimes kind of shy or embarrassed, like they’re outing themselves for stalking me or something. I think that’s because with my comics (not so much my BK strip, but the comics on my blog which are longer and more personal) I don’t really have an emotional filter and I just put it all out there.
Clay: If someone read your comic every week, do you think they’d “know” you?
Kathy: It can be a little weird talking to someone who’s read all my comics because they have all this intimate knowledge of me and the way I think and feel about things, and I assume if they’re a fan then they can relate to it in some way. But then we’re standing there at some party talking and we don’t actually know each other—and I especially don’t know anything about them—it’s a weird dichotomy. But weird in a good way.
