My first little friend on Bali:                                                          Back
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    I had mentioned in (Travel Tips) that I took a lot of colored pencils to Bali to give as presents. It's a good idea to take 
something (Small) to break the ice, no matter where you travel but especially in the poorer areas of the World.
   Well on my first morning on the island, as I was leaving my little guest house to walk into Ubud, I noticed a little girl & 
her mother waiting for the school bus & asked her if she would like some pencils for her school. She gladly agreed.
   Since that day Krista & her family have become almost like my extended family. She lives in a combination house and
art studio/gallery. Krista is not Balinese but Javanese, her father is an artist with exceptional abilities but he just couldn't 
find an outlet for his paintings in his little home town on Java so they migrated to Bali where he could get more exposure
and higher prices for his work.
 

Left: Krista (age 6) not long after  we met. The swing is attached to  the  top of the garage door which serves  as the door to their kitchen

Right; Krista with her mother, brother and sister. they are a really great family. Her father was in Denpasar selling some of his work  to a gallery when I took this Photo.
   On my last trip to Bali I bought one of her father's paintings, as we were negotiating a price, Krista came shyly out of 
the other room and announced that she had a present for me It was a painting that she had made. Her father and I had 
gotten down to $60.00 U.S. for a work that I would have had to pay at least $400. for back in the States. Anyway I
told them that I couldn't take her gift, that it was to nice, but that I would buy both of the paintings for $100.00 as long as 
$30.00 went to Krista. She ran off, all excited, to tell her mother that she was now a artist, and one who had sold a 
painting.
 

      Left: Krista and her painting.

       Right: Krista and her father.
   I wonder how many paintings she has sold since the last time I saw her. I know that she has a really devoted and 
talented teacher. I'll never forget one painting that he did. It started with dark clouds from the right, gradually changing to 
white sunny clouds, then into white stallions racing across the a clear sky.
   I hope I can get to see them soon. If you ever get to Ubud in Bali you can meet Krista & see her father's work. See 
map and address Here.