The Inspiring Artisans of Agua Viva

Recently, we read an article about a man whose father had asked each of his children nightly what they had done to make the world a better place for humanity that day. While that seems like a heavy load to put on a nine year old, it is a question worth asking our adult selves. 

To that end, we try to ask that of ourselves, and one of the things we have come to believe is that art, and artists, and artisans of every kind make the world a much better place, so we ought to support them as often as possible. 

That is actually one of the reasons we have come to love Puerto Rico so much. Per capita, there are more creatives here than anywhere else we have been, and more appreciation for the things that make life beautiful, like music, and dance and art and literature... and sunsets. 

One of our many reasons for this blog is to introduce our readers to some of the people who help to make Puerto Rico our favorite place. Here are our first feature artists...

Agua Viva

Artist & Artisan from Aguadilla, PR

Carlos and Rita

contact: carlosyritaguaviva@gmail.com

follow: Instagram Aguaviva_pr

find: Rincon, PR Art Walk on Thursday Nights

& Rincon, PR Farmer's Market on Sundays

Last winter when we made our annual pilgrimage to the island, we attended the Rincon, PR weekly art walk held on Thursday nights and saw some of the creations by Carlos and Rita of Agua Viva.

Carlos loves wood. His passion is finding and rescuing the native hardwoods of Puerto Rico. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, there were hundreds of ancient, severely damaged hardwood trees on the island that would be left to rot, float away at high tide, or be burned or piled in landfills were it not for a relatively small number of people like Carlos and Rita. 

If you come to the island and speak with anyone who deals with rescued and recovered wood, you will find people as passionate about their mission as anyone who has dedicated their lives to rescuing horses or stray dogs. 

Carlos and Rita locate the wood in landfill piles and beaches, or topped with only trunks left standing in forests. Through this labor of love, a single branch of driftwood or entire trees are turned into logs, and then sliced into blanks that can be further sanded and polished and worked to most compliment the natural beauty of each piece of wood. If you ask about a piece, Carlos will pick it up, turn it in his hands and talk about how he loved working that particular piece, and what went into it, and how each piece was to sand, and how each knot revealed its most perfect self as he worked it with the paper and oils.

Carlos  creates cutting boards and other larger items from the wood. We would show you some but his creations are all sold out at the moment and orders are backed up, because craftsmen like Carlos will not rush a piece of wood. The wood demands respect and time to reveal itself and what it is capable of becoming.

Sometimes, though, there are pieces that are too small to make a good cutting board or table and the wood is too rare, too perfect, and too beautiful to part with. These are the pieces Rita selects to paint her works of art upon. We liked the marriage of polished salvaged wood and funky ocean dwellers so much, we bought a couple last winter, and here they are, about six inches or so in diameter....

We carried these little treasures all the way back to Iowa, and fell even deeper in love with them before returning them home to the island with us last week. They had been through a lot, so we thought they could use some company. What follows are their new friends, all swimming at home in the waters of our new dining room in Rincon, Puerto Rico...

As with anything from the art world, the pictures do not do these pieces justice. The table top piece alone is nearly two feet tall. Sadly, the ones in these pictures are not for sale, but we welcome you to enjoy them with us. The only way to appreciate them fully is to come and see them for yourself in Rincon, Puerto Rico. They will all be here waiting for you.

Also, if you follow Agua Viva on Instagram, they are pretty good about showing new pieces as they are created, and you can reach them via email, as they have reliably shipped their creations all around the world.