Hands and Faces - 5 - Meet Brandon

Tonsai

Brandon is a disarming guy. I'll admit that we had one of those soft introductions where you both know the same people and sort of float into the same space. It happened so fluidly that I didn't even ask his name. 

As hard as I try not to pigeon-hole people, I must be casually xenophobic. It's not the first time I've passed over a person because they are Northern Americans. If they do have anything unusual or interesting, they'll tell you,right? I mean after all, americans are not known for their modesty.

So I'm internally an asshole and I am was most definitely wrong.

A kind face and a kind man; Thats how I got to know Brandon. Slowly it dawned on me how charming this guy was, continuously and endlessly. He has a way of making other people proud of what they do. So much so, that I never dawned on me how talented this young artist was. And I mean artist in the purest sense. The guy has a knack producing beautiful things.

It started with a guitar. I used to play the thing many years ago, and a few scratchy chords still float around my head and are roughly translated through my fingers. Brandon sat, listened, even sang along. The guitar was passed around the circle like one of Tonsai's happy cigarettes. When it fell upon Brandons lap, he cradled it lightly, but he didn't strum, he "air tapped". Soft beautiful harmonics drifted out. And the whole experience of watching Brandon nurture the guitar was like watching Brandon nurture his friendships. It was quietly done, It was beautiful and the guitar became the star. The master puppeteer smiled. His expression was soft, and kind and he looked to wear a deep happiness.

I asked Brandon later about his music. He'd toured around the States playing a form of music with one of those niche hybrid names. I'm sorry, I'm not musical, so haven't got the background to remember those kinds of things. He played some for a group of us; We huddled around a smart device screen, cupping the speaker and craning our ears to best hear. It sounded like beautiful and complicated classical guitar played through heavy distortion and fast drums. And Brandon had never even hinted at it.

How Wrong I was.

Tonsai has some good quality "deep water solo" climbing. A kind of rock climbing done over deep water and without ropes. I'd lent my normal camera to a friend and instead took the instant camera with us as we paddled kayaks out in search of climbable features. I was fortunate enough that one of the girls snapped a photo of me climbing a roof section. A great little photo, that I'm quite proud of, and of what that photo sowed. 

Brandon asked to borrow the image. "yeah sure, why not" and came back a few days later with the gift of the image you see below. Wow. Turns out the guy travels with watercolours and paints murals at places he stays.

Once again, It isn't something that Brandon would have advertised. He's far to busy making you feel proud about your stickman drawings instead.

It's hard to be totally neutral to different kinds of people and unbiased and open to new people. However, my trip to Thailand has taught me how important it is. I'd always considered myself a fair and open person. Brandon taught me a lot of things and a lot about myself. Every person has a long and colourful past and based on that a lot that they can share and teach you. Thank you Brandon.

Brandon FB art can be seen here:

LINK