What inspires you?
I am always inspired by landscape around me. This landscape is not solely limited to natural areas but also includes man-made, designed landscapes and everything in between. I frequently enjoy exploring the city to find hidden areas that are often overlooked. I love to see how reflection from building facades create an interesting pattern on a plaza or how rain water creates unexpected stain on a pathway. I also enjoy being in a crowd and observing how people use public open spaces.
What is your medium of choice?
I call it “Unconventional Drawing Medium”. I use found materials from the scenes or places that I am drawing either as a tool or as drawing medium. The medium for each drawing changes according to the landscape condition of each place. Primary media is soil, river water, and plant material. Currently at the Plumbing Museum, I am exploring the use of different types of rust that oxidizes in varying humidity to draw. The part that I like the most is the process of finding a canvas for them. I usually start simple, using paper first and see how the materials react. Then, I move to fabric, wood, and metal. For rust, I love to see how it slowly reacts to different environmental conditions through time which is very similar to plants.
What is the most important theme that your work revolves around?
My work focuses on the connections between people and their surrounding environment. Both my landscape design and art are very site specific and offer users/viewers different perceptions of ordinary everyday spaces.
What is the concept behind the work made during your residency?
The work explores the beauty of systems through a study of interior structures at the Plumbing Museum, Cannistraro shop in the Seaport and AutoCAD drawings of plumbing systems. I also find the plumbing industry and landscape architecture share a fundamental concept as both fields investigate and manage water. This idea inspires me to explore rust that grow on different types of pipes.
How do you spend your time when not working in the studio?
When I am not in a studio, I enjoy dumpster diving for interesting drawing materials, discovering new thrift store, taking the T to a random New England town, urban hiking, and running along Charles River.
How can we find you on social media and the web?
https://pprakkamakul.wixsite.com/pnnp and on instragram @giftponnapa
