ART | MURAL ART | PAINTING | TRAVEL

We Have Spent 5 Years Spreading Love Through Art

What an incredible ride it has been.

June 9th, 2018 is the day that we started painting our first mural in Samara, Costa Rica.

We had just fled the civil war that was raging in Nicaragua, and we were bedraggled and unsure about where we would go next, or how we were going to get there. We were less than a year into our nomadic life, and this experience shook us more than we realized at the time.

We were staying in a hostel with a few others who had done the same thing. We called ourselves the “Nicaragua Refugees”. It’s not really funny, but it was what it was. We were all a bit shell-shocked about the chain of events that had unfolded and not sure what to do next.

Back in 2017, we had also stayed at this particular hostel just days after arriving in Costa Rica, the first stop on our nomadic journey. At that time we were headed to our first house-sitting job, so when the owner asked us to paint a mural for him, we sadly had to refuse.

Besides, we didn’t really know how to paint.

Both of us were artists, sure. But our disciplines were not painting. I worked with clay, stained glass, jewellery making, and did do some drawing and doodling. Though I was also a house painter, so I knew a thing or two about paint.

Chris was primarily a tattoo artist and also drew with ink and pencil. He had never dabbled in artists' paint at all.

But when we returned to the same hostel 8 months later, I wondered if the project was still available. The owner had told us that we could stay for free if we painted it and I was excited about that potential this time around.

After just one day there, the owner came into the common room and spotted us. He did a double take and I could see there was a look of recognition in his eyes.

“Do you remember us?” I asked him.

“Sure, I do.” He said reassuringly.

“Do you still need those Scarlett Macaws painted?” I jumped right to the chase.

“Yes, I do. Do you want to do it?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” I said with confidence.

“How long will it take you?” He asked.

Having no idea whatsoever how long it would take, I shrugged my shoulders and hesitantly said, “Oh, I don't know. Maybe 10 days.” I’m not sure who I was fooling.

“Okay, you will get 10 free days of accommodation if you make the painting.” He told us.

“Great!” I was ecstatic.

Chris and I went back into our room and I was surprised at how angry he was. He didn’t want to paint the painting at all! When I asked him what the problem was, he said “We don’t know how to paint.”

“Well, if we screw it up and it sucks we will just paint the board white and pay for our room,” I told him. “We really have nothing to lose here. We might as well give it a try.”

He reluctantly agreed.

Now, I shouldn’t say that I hadn’t painted art paintings at all. I had started dabbling in acrylic paint, but I had painted nothing significant except for this painting that I completed and sold just before we left Canada on our nomadic journey.

My friend bought it for $100 at our going away party. My first officially sold piece of original art.

That project allowed me to experiment with the paint, at least, so I wasn’t exactly going into the current project completely blind. I had also been watching friends of mine paint for a few years in the last town we lived, Powell River, BC, Canada. Every chance I had to see one of them paint, I couldn’t absorb it enough. I inspected every detail and paid attention to all the techniques.

Plus, as a kid, I watched Bob Ross incessantly. I couldn’t get enough of seeing his process and watching how he created magic on a blank page. In fact, I once asked my parents for an oil painting kit for my birthday. Then this happened:

I was 12 years old. Let’s just say that patience was not my strong suit and I was annoyed that I wasn’t perfect at it the first time I tried. It would take me a few years (or a couple of decades!) to learn that ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist, and that skills aren’t learned overnight.

Fast forward 25-ish years later, and I am standing in front of my first large canvas doing something that I never could have EVER imagined. I was doing a commissioned painting.

Sure, it wasn’t for cash, but I realized that by getting free accommodation, we were drastically cutting our expenses. Plus we were sharing our creativity, and spreading our art around the world. A free place to stay was enough for us.

Besides, the trust this man had that we could do it, was enough to make me think I could trust in us as well.

We had our own private room and bathroom, and we were stoked to get started. At least I was.

In the end, the painting took 20 days.

We fought, argued, and bickered at each other through the whole process trying to figure out how to do it. We realized early that we both have strong creative visions, so finding a middle ground that we are both happy with is sometimes challenging.

We were also healing from our ordeal in Nicaragua. We didn’t realize how shell-shocked we were from the events that unfolded and the art started to heal us.

Our anxiety lessened, the more we sunk into the painting. The more details we focussed on, the more our brain cleared. In fact, I often wonder how different our life experience had of been had we not had that creative project to work on.

We somehow released our anxiety into something of beauty.

Since this fateful day, we have painted murals in 11 different countries and have done over 20 various projects. From small art pieces that hang on a wall, all the way up to the Visitors Center at the Entebbe Zoo in Uganda.

Now, our art has carried us through the pandemic.

I truly believe that had we not had the number of creative projects to focus on that we have in the past 3 years, we would not be the same people that we are now.

From one mural project, to the other, we hopped and skipped our way around parts of Africa. We fell in love with the continent. There is a magic there that the rest of the world really should experience. But it is also tragic. The way human beings are treated by their governments in many countries is sad and appalling.

Our art heals us

Let's be real. We have seen a thing or two in the last few years of full-time travel. The struggle and suffering that people face in an age where the world is so rich, is disheartening and discouraging. There is a huge imbalance going on, and I just don’t understand why.

I will never understand why we got so lucky in life.

But we pour our hurt and despair into our creativity, and somehow, the beauty comes out the other side. The more we do this work, the more we are exposing others to what the beauty can be as they view our process.

Our paintings offer hope for the future

One thing we have realized in this process is that art heals us. And if art can heal us, then maybe it can also heal others. Maybe it can even heal the planet.

We tend to paint idyllic scenes. We paint the way we want to see the world. Lush rolling hillsides, beautiful landscapes, clean air and healthy plants and animals.

Is it a vision for the future? We can only realize it if we see it.

Thanks to all of you who continue to follow us on our Artistic Voyage. With each project, we improve and we are so excited about where our skills will carry us moving forward.

5 years in and I feel like we are just getting started!

To see more of our mural projects visit www.artisticvoyages.com/murals.

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