I am sitting on the veranda of our hostel on a big couch squeezed between two of my favorite people in the world Maxine Nienow, my co conspirator in the FlutuArte project, and Dan Bratman, our designated writer and project manager.

The glowing statue of Christ shines down on us and the lights of the Santa Marta favela twinkle like stars in front of us within the black silhouette of the majestic mountains of Rio de Janeiro.

Tonight and every night, we are here… making the magic of FlutuArte happen.

And what a production!

Ironically painting makes up the smallest part of my life these days. Spreadsheets, fundraising, schedules, web development, artist scouting, social networking, letter writing, and meeting after meeting fill my days and hours spent away from the harbor.

FlutuArte office II, the south wing

The idea for FlutuArte was born back in February after painting the boat of captain Joáo Silva. It was a crazy idea. I can hardly believe we had the balls to go through with it. Maxine made up a vital part of the plan. She believed in it.

So much transpired in those first couple of months. The beginning of FlutuArte started very very slowly… painting one boat at a time, gradually showing the fisherman that a painted boat was perhaps nicer than a plain one. Each newly finished boat generated more interest from the other fishermen and FlutuArte began to spread gradually, like a happy virus. It was all very exciting.

Then there were the hard times. I remember the weeks that I was alone in Rio before Maxine came back to join me after going back to NYC for Fountain Art fair. I lived by myself in a small room close to the harbor in Urca and rode my bicycle to the boats every day. The days I spent painting at the harbor alone were some of the best days and some of the most challenging.

Roasting in the sun, my mood vacillated between a state of joyous rapture and sheer terror as I floated on a boat roof, surrounded by 60 other boats with blank tops, the vision of them painted locked in mind. It was a mission near-impossible… I sometimes wondered if I was crazy, could this project even be realized? What if the fishermen began to see us as intruders in their comfortably predictable world. I believed in the contagious aspect of the art, but what if they started to say no? What if they closed the door on FlutuArte?

After weeks of uncertainty and anxiety and relentless persistence Maxine came back and brought with her the other half of my faith. Together we slowly earned the trust of the fishermen, talking to them about their lives and asking them what they wanted to see reflected on their boats. We would go around the harbor every Saturday and Sunday when the fishermen came back from the sea to talk to them and see if we could paint their boat. Some said no. In the early stages one fisherwoman who initially got excited about the idea changed her mind explaining that she didn’t want to be the only weird one with her boat painted.

Maxine talking to the fishermen

I wrote a last week that FlutuArte has brought me to experience a new level of awesome I had never felt before. I have finally seen the culmination of the last two months of hard work. After painting many boats we have reached a tipping point. Fishermen are now coming to us to see if they can get their boat painted. The woman who before was scared of being the only different one came to tell us that she wants a beautiful white bird on her boat.

The fishermen are proud of the designs. They sit on the stairs at the sides of the harbor overlooking their newly  painted boats and talk about the work. They, most of whom have never set foot in a proper gallery are now the owners of art and the keepers of a floating gallery in the works.

Maxine and I stood on the bridge in front of the harbor, arms locked together in indescribable bliss as we watched the rooftops of several boats being painted simultaneously by artists we deeply admired. We walked from one end of the harbor to the other to watch their progress with huge smiles on our faces and a sparkle skipping back and forth between each others eyes.

Now we have a movement.

But it’s not over yet. Many of the rooftops need to be repaired in order to be painted and we still need to get permission for about fifty boats. We have a lot of work ahead of us! Float on!

Marcelo Zissu paints a giant squid

Combone makes magic

Ian Blumstein and Ilana row back to shore after varnishing Pérola Bonfanti’s mermaid design