There is something I'll always feel like I owe to the Americas and especially to Mexico, which is encouraging me and tons of other travelers to find an artistic hustle to sustain the humble traveling lifestyle. I feel like so many films and writers from the beat generation talking about heading down do Mexico and living 'on the road' paved the way for today's amazing traveling culture. Once you start backpacking around Mexico, you keep meeting people from everywhere -especially all over Latin America- that have been living this nomadic lifestyles based on the specific art hustle they create on the move. Stereotypically, Argentinians master the Macrame, many Mexicans juggle or perform something in one way or another, or they create jewellery filigranas made with wire (alambre), and random people bring up random skills they happened to learn while traveling around. When you happen to be around there, that becomes the normality, and if you want to keep traveling around, you find your nomadic trade. Later you realize it's actually not the norm everywhere in the world. There is a huge difference between this and just saving up to travel later. It's something really specific that really allows you to be in the moment, living with what you are making on a daily basis. It's a pretty close attempt at actually being a local in a place you don't really belong.
I'm not trying to say this only happens in North America, there is certainly a scene in every single corner of the world, but in my own personal experience, North and Central America and more specifically, Mexico, is on the top of the list.
While being around there the first thing I paid attention to was the intricate skills many of these travelers had with macrame. I did give it a proper go, learned some nods and put together a few basic necklaces, but very soon realized I would have to work really hard to compete with all this masters. I kept thinking about what I was able to offer to stop me from starvation all while carrying a backpack.
And then one day I had an idea, I obviously couldn't carry big pots of paints and pieces of wood to make my paintings, and also what tourist would be committing to buy some heavy ass painting to carry throughout their holidays? I was staying in Zipolite, the little beach town in the Oaxaca coast known for it's nudist tolerance and hippie vibe, living in my hammock for about 10$ a week. So I took a colectivo (the Mexican local bus) and went up to Pochutla, the biggest tiny town around, and headed to the tiny corner store there is and bought myself some thin cardboard papers and some tiny acrylic color pots to start painting my postcards!
Turns out it happened to be an incredibly good idea! No one else was doing that so I wasn't competing with anyone, and even if anyone at some point was, we would never have similar styles! All I did was making funny jokes about the surroundings with my cartoony style, which is still what I do when I make postcards today! All of them are done freestyle out of my imagination, and end up with the right person, who feels like can identify with it.
My postcards are the mass-produced outcome of my art, as I sell them for 5$ each, no matter what country I'm in. Said that, I can't spend all day doing one, so I paint about 7 or 8 at a time. First I draw something on each of them with a pencil, and then I start coloring them all together like if I was a printer or something, filling one same color where is needed in each card, then next color, later the black outline, and finally if I go fancy and the materials are available I spray varnish all of them. Of course 5$ postcards in the US or Australia don't get you really far, but I can say in Mexico or Guatemala selling 3 or 4 a day you can live pretty cool! And the best of all is you are your own boss, no 9 to 5, everyday in paradise while giving the nomad lifestyle a real purpose, as you're actually making a buck instead of just spending.
The reason why I'm really insistent on the geographical specification for this lifestyle to be very common is because years later I got to travel South East Asia. As a surprise, I didn't see much of this going on at all. The traveler scene is very different. It feels like despite the bigger cultural and language barrier to most Westerners, South East Asia has been far more invaded by Spring breakers and Holiday makers. Every capital city is crowded with "backpackers" getting wasted every night on their savings from back home or from doing a Working Holiday Visa in Australia. Some are doing Helpx work exchanges and many are teaching English and actually living there, but I definitely missed a lot that culture I've been talking about. I am not saying it can't be done there, even though I didn't give it a go, but it's not as inviting as you would be one of the only ones.
Anyways, my conclusion is, if you ever thought about this, but thought you were not creative enough, think back and give it a go! Every single one of us has something creative to offer, and discovering what it is that you personally have, and automatically making a living in one way or another with it, will most definitely change your life forever!
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