At Your Beck and Call

A portrait of the artist's family during his youth with each member depicted as a totemic animal. In it can be seen Prateep himself wearing a torn tiger skin; while his father, as leader of the family, is represented as an elephant (from the Thai proverb "Men are the front legs of the elephant: women are the hind legs of the elephant"); his brother is represented as a monkey and his sisters as a pig and horse, after their signs in the Chinese zodiac. His mother seated center stage is pictured primarily in human form with a faucet in place of a face, a cob of corn inside her arm, a book in her lap and at hand: symbols of the sacrifices she has made to sustain and educate her children. While his father in the top right looks out to sea, his mother is both physically and metaphrically at the center of the family, giving of herself wholly and unselfishly. The translucent lower half of her body most lucidly illustrates the nature of her generous spirit as her body contains a treasure trove of precious stones, valuables which are freely available to be taken by their children. She seemingly escapeds totemic treatment, but on closer inspection we can observe a diminutive pair of butterfly wings growing from her back, a symbol of the power of her spirit of transformation, stifled in size because of the energy expended not on herself but on the metamorphoses of her offspring from childhood to adulthood.