Everybody in Bali seems to be an artist. Coolies and princes, priests and peasants, men and women alike, can dance, play musical instruments, paint, or carve in wood and stone. It was often surprising to discover that an otherwise poor and dilapidated village harbored an elaborate temple, a great orchestra, or a group of actors of repute.
-Miguel Covarrubias, Island Of Bali-
Pablo Gentile is a Bali expat who first came to Bali in the 70s. He is an artist, painter and sculptor who has a studio in Seminyak. Pablo kindly agreed to let me interview him on short notice and I was excited to listen to his stories and also get a glimpse into the lifestyle of an artist living in Bali, a dream for many people.
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Nick: So here we are with Pablo Gentile, artist supreme. Your from New York and you are 40 years old, right Pablo?
Pablo: I am over 40.
Nick: You moved from NYC to Bali in the early 70s. Why did you come to Bali?
Pablo: It was on the way to Australia and I went overland. I was in Greece with a bunch of friends and I knew I wanted to go overland. I wanted to go around the world, so Bali was here.
Nick: Why is Bali a special place for you? Why was it and why is it?
Pablo: I think the same reasons still hold true. It is the Balinese people. Aside from everything else because there are a million beautiful tropical islands everywhere in the world, but the Balinese people themselves somehow integrate in a welcoming manner, in their relationship to religion and nature and to each other and to the world. There is actually something you could learn no matter what university you have been to or how sophisticated your life is, you learn from the Balinese. The fact that there are more creative hands here than any other small area in the world, more artists here per capita than in SoHo. I mean for every Balinese its part of his life.
Nick: One of the questions I have written down is Tell me about those early days here in Bali. Pretty free-style living, very creative times?
Pablo: Okay I will tell you this. We had a little group, 40 or 50 of us, we lived on the beach. We all figured out, I do not want to say businesses, but we all kind of somehow were living off of our own creativity, and some went into fashion, some went into jewelry, some went into painting , some went into whatever. A lot of us were well on our trail before we got here. So we figured out these lifestyles kind of as an excuse to be here.
Nick: Did the existing art scene help you early on?
Pablo: Yeah sure, but the art scene was not like the art scene in the west where the art scene was composed of many people from all over the world. It was more like many artists from all over the world had their studios here, the quote Art Scene was really dominated by the Balinese in the fact that their output was tremendous. Somehow it was impossible to come here and not be affected by it.
Nick: Does the Balinese culture inspire you to create?
Pablo: Everything inspires me to create. History inspires me to create everything does, its all part of the process.
Nick: The Beat Magazine did an article about you and your work in which it mentioned your Image Bank, would you like to elaborate on the image bank a little bit?
Pablo: Sure yeah. I have always traveled with a sketch-book and I took quite a lot of photos as well, but its like, suppose you want to remember something so you jot it down, I mean you are a writer, I am not, but I make little drawings. By the time you have jotted it down you have already memorized it. But I have thousands of drawings and sketches that I have accumulated along the way.
You know what I am saying, you have your image bank too.
Nick: Actually my image bank is photos believe it or not.
Pablo: Its bigger than that. Its everything you have seen that has affected you, and its buried in there some place, in your hard drive. Then its comes out no matter what, something reminds you of something else, its always those associations, that is what you get out of travelling.
You do not really need photography, you do not really need to make sketches.
Nick: It also mentions in the Beat Magazine article that on your travels in Asia over the last 30 years, you were looking for holy men, shamans, tribal chiefs etc. etc. and so it was these powerful figures that left a deep impression?
Pablo: I will tell you this, it is a personal thing. Its not only about being in Bali, its been about every place I have ever traveled in my life. I wanted to meet girls of course (laughing), artists, the religious figures, the people I can have a rapport with. Anywhere in the world that I go, especially in the third world I always want to meet the fortune tellers, I want to meet the astrologers. Whether or not I believe in it I always visit those people and I search them out. That is kind of like a hobby, it is an esoteric study but its also part of being here because its so unique. You go up to some place in Borneo and see these amazing carvings and paintings, I want to know who did it, I want to find the studio, I want to talk to the guys. That is the fun of it for me.
Nick: In your artwork what are the mediums you prefer? Obviously oil painting.
Pablo: Painting, sculpture, mixed media, bits and pieces of paper, anything I find anywhere, things that floats up on the beach.
Nick: What areas in Bali do you spend most of your time in?
Pablo: Ah, Seminyak. My studio. I am like Michael Jackson, I spend months where I do not even leave the property. I am not a go-out kind of guy.
Nick: How has Bali changed for you?
Pablo: Oh its just gotten better. The food is lot better. Obviously its gotten built up. I am really thankful that out of those old friends that were here 20 years ago most of them are still here. So there is more traffic, more cars, more villas, more people on the move. More people coming here to make money whereas in the other times I think we came here not to make money, no one ever expected to. We came here to avoid that.
Nick: I have a friend who has lived here for 13 years and he said that the party scene has changed a lot because the expat scene is much larger. Back them people would have house parties but they do not do that anymore because nobody wants 85 strangers showing up at their house.
Pablo: What I want to say on that issue is that parties still exist among the people who live here, but they are quieter and more private. I mean of course we still have parties.
Nick: As an expat, (this is tying you in with all the average folks like me), as an expat what are the challenges of living in Bali?
Pablo: There are not that many challenges.
Nick: Do you have any tips for other people planning to live in Bali?
Pablo: Dont come (laughing).
Nick: I was thinking you might say that.
Pablo: No, no, its too easy to say that. Really, get out of Legian, Kuta, travel around the island a bit, see what Bali really is and realize this little area of development is only 10% of the Bali experience. That is really the best thing you could say to everybody.
Spread the money around, there are a lot of people who need it on the other side of the island.
Nick: How has the art scene in Bali developed since you have been living here?
Pablo: I think that time weeds out a lot of people. There were a lot of people who came for a year or two and tried to be an artist and thought that was something easy. So those who have stuck to their guns, their work is getting better and better all the time, standards have gotten much better, much tougher. There is a lot of great international artists and galleries here, so we are getting closer and closer to world class. The quality and talent that is here. Its no longer a cheap place to live. You cannot sell a painting once a month and expect to make a living around here. So most of us who are still doing this we are professional, our standards can compete with anywhere in the world.
Nick: Do you sell most of your work locally or overseas?
Pablo: Overseas.
Nick: What direction is your own art going in now?
Pablo: Its gone from a stage where I had to cram everything in and its moving to a stage of Zen openness, you see what I mean. So its opening up, its reaching for a higher ground, its suggesting more than blatantly screaming as it used to. So its gone from a scream to a whisper.
Nick: Do you have any tips for someone who might want to come to Bali on a painting holiday or spend a few months here painting?
Pablo: That is a great thing to do. You can find everything you need here. You can probably find a relatively cheap place to work. Local people make great assistants, studio assistants which is really great. Its easy to get organized and to achieve more here than you might if you were at home working.
Nick: Any travel plans for you in the near future?
Pablo: Yes. I am on my way to Ibiza and Amsterdam and probably NYC. I should be there for a couple of months. While I am out of Bali I have a commission on in Australia and I am thinking of painting the second stage of it in a studio in Spain.
Nick: Is there anything else you would care to mention about yourself or your work?
Pablo: I like it when people come visit my studio. Really they are welcome to come anytime, especially if they call first and we are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Nick: Should I tell them to bring gifts, cakes etc.?
Pablo: No bring money and buy paintings.
Nick: Your web-site does it list prices?
Pablo: No its not that kind of a site. Its more like a gallery of the work with some text that was written by some pretty good writers. A lot of great photographers contributed to that. It is a work that many people have helped out in, a group effort. All of the pictures are sold already but its nice that people can look at the work and maybe arrange a studio visit.
Nick: What do you call this kind of style where you have objects appearing in the background, middle and foreground? Does that have a name?
Pablo: Perspective I guess. What I try to achieve is a sense of depth using lights and darks. What jumps forward and what recedes. There are a lot of things from Bali in some pieces, though not all of the work is Balinese.
You see in Bali there is actually 2 worlds, its well known you know. There is a world you see and there is a world you do not see. The Balinese have names for that, iskala and sekala, the visible and the invisible world. Most of us when we first come here, do not understand that especially now because all the magic and mysticism is a little bit better hidden than it was before, it still happens but its not out on the street. But for the Balinese they do have one foot in another world and there is a true spirit to everything.
Nick: Do you think you will stay in Bali?
Pablo: I will be here for a while.
Check out more of Pablos work on his website Art InStone.
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Pablo wanted to be expressive in his photo so not to appear a boring wanker.
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my sister and i want to meet you…..whats your phone number?
How many times the Gecho says Gecho?
How many times the Gecho says Gecho?
Hi Tony/Pablo,
Sent an email to your website too…if you want to get in touch I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Fran, from a lifetime ago in japan
where did he get that lovely tongue…..how can I meet him?