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We Paint Murals In Exchange For Accommodation
We believe that our creativity is a gift to share.
As full-time travelers, it is crucial for us to find ways to cut our costs and keep our expenses to a minimum as we move around. Neither of us has a traditional ‘job’ so we create ways to make money online (hello Medium!) so that we can continue traveling.
But when we can also cut expenses, our life certainly becomes easier.
Using our artistic talent is one way that we do that. Quite often when we reach a place that we want to stay at for a while, we message hotel and accommodation providers in the area and simply ask them if they are interested in our services.
Because we have a portfolio on our website, it is usually pretty easy to send them there to show them our work. We also have some process videos on our YouTube Mural Playlist that they can watch.
Now, you may wonder, why would we do this for free, when we could be charging big money?
Well, the answer isn’t quite so straightforward. Much depends on the places that we are visiting and the rules around foreigners needing work visas to earn money. By doing it this way, we are sort of sneaking around the rules as we aren’t technically getting paid.
Plus, there are a few other reasons why we enjoy it.
We get paid for our original paintings 100% of the time.
Many artists have a hard time selling original paintings. They get stacked up in their homes or studios, oftentimes never seeing the light of day. Of course, they may sell prints, but those originals are expensive and at times hard to move.
By painting our art directly on the wall, and getting an immediate return on our work in the form of accommodation (and sometimes food), we are, in a sense, selling our originals 100% of the time.
