Bali, Indonesia

I noticed on my blog visitor map that I've got readers in the Asia Pacific region, so I've been remembering that back in 1984 I was in Bali. Twice, actually. The experience turned into one of my many creative interludes -- those adventures in emergent creativity that interspersed the more nose-to-the-grindstone periods of my life.

I went to Bali with a girlfriend, to get away from it all for a while, and I came back an importer of beautiful Indonesian goods. I went back the second time that year to have some clothing that I'd designed, manufactured there.

I had these outfits, and jumpsuits (oh, so 1980s), sewn and handpainted in Bali, and shipped them back. I had reps on the West Coast for a while but things didn't turn around fast enough (read: couldn't sell enough product in a short period of time) so, unfortunately, I never went back. This photo is of a display in a shop window in Santa Cruz.

The trips to Bali were fraught with their own kind of intrigue, politics between small manufacturers, me, being the American in the mix, not sure at all of what was really going on behind the scenes. But was it ever a learning experience, in so many ways.

Of course, Bali is a fantastically beautiful place and I met really wonderful people there. As I recall, there's no word for "artist" in the local language, because everyone IS an artist. And I was among them for a brief time.

Selamat jalan!