This is Mar. Hes a curious Balinese man with a serious talent for art, a friendly soul, and a tremendously infectious smile.
We were motor biking through the Bali countryside and pulled over to take a couple of photos. Mar waved us into his backyard gazebo for a better view and we struck up a conversation.
Hes an artist. His small drawings take 5 days and his larger ones take 10. Hes married and has a son, who invites all his friends over for neighborhood futboll matches in the backyard (theyre serious affairs, naturally). On New Years, he had a big party, drank too much, and couldn’t work the next day. A man from New Hampshire buys a bunch of his art and resells it in the US. We told him wed rather buy a piece directly from him instead of going to New Hampshire, so we did. Were gonna send him a photo of his art in our house once its framed on WhatsApp.
In a world where destinations are so accessible and so many people go places just to get the photo which, sadly, is what Bali has become Mar reminds us why its important to stop and connect with our fellow humans, and why traveling will always make us richer if we want it to
