Padaung "long-neck" girl

[David Draime]

This past summer I was in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and -briefly - Myanmar (Burma). While in northwest Thailand I visited several Padaung "long-neck" villages. The Padaung are an ethno-linguistic subgroup of the Karen people, originally from Myanmar, many of whom have resettled in northern Thailand as refugees. The brass ornaments worn by the Padaung women around their neck and limbs look like separate rings but are actually continuous coils that may weigh up to 20 kg. The neck coils depress the collarbone and rib cage, making it look as if their necks are unnaturally stretched. I noticed that little girls, like this one, wore fairly small coils, that would be gradually increased in size as she grew into adulthood.

I wasn't entirely comfortable walking through these villages with my sizable Nikon camera, though they certainly made me feel welcome nonetheless. Tourism is how these refugees make a living. They don't ask for money if you want to photograph them, but they are all selling trinkets and souvenirs....I have a LOT of trinkets from these villages - as well as a lot of photographs. In talking with them, I realized that most of them were in Thailand by choice - to escape a potentially much worse fate back in their native Myanmar. They seem to welcome tourism, as the best way they can make a living under present circumstances. As fewer and fewer Karen women are adopting the coil-wearing tradition, it is gradually dying out - as it should, I think - though tourism is no doubt slowing this trend somewhat.

Conte on Rives BFK (buff). 22" X 30"

[Chris Saper]

David, this is an exquisite drawing.

Oddly enough, I happened to be in Ripley's "Believe It or Not Museum" in NYC this past weekend, and this tradition was prominently shown. If I recall the tradition began as a kind of above the waist chastity best, in that the men of the tribes felt that by forcing the girls and women to do the neck coils, the women would be found unattractive by other men. Eventually it evolved into a kind of beauty symbol.

To me it has a complex kind of attraction, part beauty, and part train wreck fascination. The exhibit showed an array of those terribly deformed necks and clavicles.

I think you should approach the museum about including your drawing or print, in the exhibit.

I actually found this exhibit compelling, and I think that your drawing conveys, at least my emotional response through this young girl.

Ripley's is definitely weird, kind of a side show anachronism, but I am sure he had a very interesting life, one that Hemingway would have either abhorred or coveted.

[Linda Brandon]

David, I am very impressed by this sensitive drawing. You have amazing control and finesse; can you share some tips for working with conte? (Tell me everything you know.)

(Glad to see you posting on here again, by the way. )

[Cindy Procious]

David - what a gorgeous drawing. I keep coming back to look at it.

I was watching a show called Taboo where they featured these women, but I came in too late to catch that part. I'm with Chris - it's fascinating, beautiful in it's odd way, and bizarre and strange and awful all at the same time.

But certainly you have captured this girl and her quiet beauty.

[Marina Dieul]

David,
how nice to see a new drawing of yours! I particularly love your choice of medium : this sanguine tone emphasizes your subject.
I'll come back often to see this : I have a head an shoulders in sanguine to draw these days

Congratulations on this beautiful exotic portrait.

[Alexandra Tyng]

David,

What a beautiful drawing! For me, her humanity and individuality speak so clearly that the coil around her neck seems part of her rather than a bizarre form of torture for beauty's sake. I do love the use of conte in this drawing. Your trip sounds amazing!

[David Draime]

Chris, thank you so much. Yeah, I have to say, walking through these villages was a bit of a "Ripley" experience. I mean, that's why tourists go there - to gawk and photograph a people who deliberately deform themselves. There is a kind of freak show aspect to it all that I was not at all comfortable with. On the way to these villages - one of which we could only get to by boat down the Pai river - we'd see hand painted signs that read "Longneck village, 2 km." with a funky cartoon of a longneck woman. I lived in China for several years and occasionally would see an ancient woman hobbling down the road with impossibly small, bounded feet. That was certainly freaky to see, but you'd never see dozens of them gathered together "on display" as it were, in a "bounded feet village." But of course, as an artist in Thailand I found myself really drawn to these people, just the look of their shiny coils, other decorations, native dress... my inhibitions/revulsion were put on hold. I knew I wanted to draw and paint them.

From everything I've read about them, no one is certain when or why this tradition started, though the explanation you mentioned certainly is one of the stronger theories out there. Different tribes will explain it differently.

[David Draime]

Linda, thanks and I'm glad you like this drawing. Believe me, I'm no expert with conte (you should talk to Marina!). I've dabbled with it here and there in life drawing classes, but this is my first somewhat finished drawing with it. What inspired me to do this one was Susan Lyons' beautiful conte portraits that were on display at last year's PSA conference - I'm guessing you saw them there...they can also be seen on her and Scott's website. She had mentioned that she used Rives BFK paper and loved it. I know this paper well from my printmaking days - and I've got to say, it is a very beautiful surface to draw on with conte.

I used a Cretacolor conte pencil which I sharpened often, and that's it. I didn't want to use a conte stick in conjuction as it would add a whole other quality and/or color. I found that in laying down light tones and going over it with a blending stump gave me some very beautiful passages - these lighter tones just glow on this paper. Going darker is a bit problematic. I'm so used to charcoal which gives...black. The darkest that conte will go is not that dark. And even then I was pretty sure I didn't want to go completely saturated with the conte. I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. So I guess you have to decide what value is going to represent your darkest darks - and then be careful not to go darker anywhere else.

Just my two cents' worth.

[David Draime]

Cindy, thank you.

Originally Posted by Cindy Procious

- it's fascinating, beautiful in it's odd way, and bizarre and strange and awful all at the same time.

You're absolutely right - it's all those things at once.

[Tom Edgerton]

Masterful, as always...

(Thanks too, David, for the discussion of the technique.)

All the best--T