What do you wake up in the morning for? Why? What is that thing that drives you? that gives your life meaning?

For me the question is simple – charity work. I like to help others. Especially when it is parts of the population who really need it, who are really helpless, and children are the best example of that slice of our world.

My name is boaz zippor, and I am an artist, writer, poet, musician etc, a full time creative who dedicates my life to creation and art. And a philanthropist. These days, more than anything else.

I used to be in the marketing world, branding, advertising, design, multimedia. I used to be a business man, and I used to be very busy building companies and working on big international projects for clients like nestle, ford, hp, Compaq, Microsoft and others.

I liked it, well, when I was young. And then I started a new adventure and became a photographer, both commercial but also art photography. a full-time artist. and I opened a successful photography gallery here in Bangkok, in sapan-kwai, the famous BOKA gallery. I liked that too. I was in the center of the creative world. I hosted big events, I knew everybody, I really did like that. At the time.

But at a certain point, success means very little. You wear the expensive suits, you eat the fancy dinners, you have Sunday brunches in luxury hotels by the beach, you know, the good life. You host ambassadors and royalty in your house for coffee and cake, you travel around the world on client’s dime, you see your pics in newspapers and magazines, you give interviews and you have fans. Yes, you have it all.

But, again, it means very little. It gets old very fast. So, you start to look for something more, something extra. Some people go for the drugs and alcohol, some for the adventures of the opposite sex, some dive into the madness of pure creation and lose themselves there. I have to admit i tried them all, and to tell the truth, enjoyed them all, but that was not enough, that did not fill the hole I had, the void we are all born with.

For me, the only way to make sense of this life was charity work. Helping others, helping those who really need help and can not help themselves. That made sense, that was a worthy cause, that was a reason to wake up in the morning.

Without that, it is just paying bills, it is eating and shitting, it is the same meaningless game over and over again, the same day repeating, the same ritual. Charity is different. You make a difference, and you make a difference in other people’s life. That is special, that is worth getting up in the morning for.

Now, the problem was that I am lazy, and I am an artist in heart, which means i do not have a lot of money I can spend on charity work, you know how artists are. You have freedom and you have time but you pay in the loss of real income and economic freedom. Artists are not good with money, they lack that basic greed or even drive to make money.

When I owned design and marketing companies the money was abundant but the more I concentrated on art, well, the more poor I got, and I was ok with that.

And on the other hand, I really am not the type to run around and do things outside, go to the slums, drive twelve hours to the border town orphanage. I really am just too lazy. Sorry.

But I do know people who are far from being lazy, and one of them is Eddie Haworth, the founder of “the gift of happiness foundation” a very small, very transparent charity who does amazing work all over Thailand for the past twelve years. www.gohappiness.org

Eddie and the foundation reach thousands of children every month, in the worst conditions in Thailand, living in city dumps, in refugee camps, in the most poor and desolate locations. They bring them the joy of entertainment, as eddie is an internationally acclaimed clown, but also tons and tons of clothes, school supplies, diapers, medicine and everything that they could need.

They work tirelessly day in and day out to do this holy work.

I am too lazy for that, so I can just admire them. And what I can do, is raise funds through my art. I have a gift, a talent, I was born with that and thank god I learnt how to monetize that gift. People seem to love my art work and they like to buy it for their homes or even offices.

In the past I made money for myself selling my art, and now, as I am retired and older, I use this talent to raise money for the gift of happiness foundation.

In 2019, before covid hit us, I started the “creative philanthropy” project, and I did six exhibitions, pop up exhibitions in five-star hotels and hi-so restaurants, with 100% of the sales going to the gift of happiness foundation.

As I know a lot of charities in Thailand are fake and dishonest, to emphasis how clean is the gift of happiness and how clean is my work with them, the money that comes through the sales of my art work doesn’t even pass in my hands, but is paid by the buyers directly to the gift of happiness foundation.

Now, I have to note that the main sponsor for the www.gohappiness.org Is mornoe consulting, www.monroeconsulting.com a placement company who took the job of angel sponsors and pay for most of the expenses of the foundation.

The money that I manage to raise is a small drop in that ocean. It pays for some of the bills, it pays to fill the tank with gas when there are trips up north to bring truck loads of help to kids on the border. It pays the electric bill for the storage house. It is a small contribution and I really wish I could do more.

Now, that corona is behind us, I am trying to reignite that project, to relaunch the “creative philanthropy” effort and to start helping them again. For me. Not for altruistic reasons, but for selfish reasons, so I will have a good reason to wake up in the morning. It is as simple as that.

The first big charity exhibition will be in ocotber 8^th, in the trendy sathorn11 gallery in Bangkok.

I hope to see you there, as it will be a lovely event with live music and cultural surprises, starting at 16:00 and going on into the evening.

This will be the first of many, with a new venue and new art work every couple of months. (am already negotiation with a couple of five star hotels and also music production companies for the next year schedule)

And if you would like to help me help them, if you are able to help a little with the budget needed to actually make those exhibitions, please contact me directly . boaz.zippor@gmail.com

The last years have hit us hard to and unfortunately, I do not even have the little money I had to be able to do these projects three years ago. I do not have budget to do amazing prints and frame them like before covid, so I am now relying on donations from friends and the general crowd to be able to actually do these exhibitions, and have to ask the public for assistance. I need to raise money, so I will have money to raise much more money…. As they say, you need money to make money.

the calculation is simple, from experience, for every 1,000 baht in prints and frames, the sales are around 4,000 that go to the foundation, so I am quadrupling your basic donation and sometimes even more, with my art sales. That is how it works.

I hope this coming event, in sathorn11 gallery on the 8^th of October, will be a positive beginning for a new season of creation and fund raising. And I hope you can be part of it too. Any contribution will be helpful.

Thank you in advance,

Boaz Zippor

Creative Philanthropy

Bangkok 2022

Boaz.zippor@gmail.com