My eyes are tired from a long day of painting and I have to fight them from closing. It’s 4am and everyone is asleep as I sit on the balcony of my hostel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The lights of the Santa Marta favela twinkle on mountain in front of me and a cool breeze brings freshness to my face. Maxine, my FlutuArte co-conspirator and I updated our boat inventory this evening and we were happy to count 35 boats in progress of being painted. We also learned that instead of about 65 boats in the harbor we have now counted 75…

That’s a lot of boats!

We want to paint all of them. Some have damaged rooftops which need repair before painting is possible. We are raising money to fix about 15-20 broken roofs. If you would like to help us purchase building materials please donate here.

Many artists are in the process of painting their boats. Here are a few-

Suav, Rio de Janeiro

Shalak Attack, Montreal, Canada

Bruno Smoky, Sao Paolo, Brazil and Mike Makatron, Melbourne, Australia

Pazito, Bogota, Columbia

Barbara Pereira, Rio de Janeiro

FlutuArte is growing fast. Last week we had a paint jam at the harbor followed by a BBQ boat trip. Johnny Boy, the owner of the first boat we painted, took us out on a cruise and we counted twenty five people from twelve different countries aboard the boat.

The project is in full swing and I am happy for the opportunity to be working with so many talented people from around the world.

Tomorrow we will meet up at the harbor in the afternoon after the fishermen come back from the sea. Then we plan to check out an abandoned hotel near the top of Corcavado mountain near the Christ the Redeemer statue. The building has just been purchased for renovation so it may be one of the last chances we will get to explore it before it’s transformed into a posh hotel.

Photos and more to come~