Boxie is the fourth artist in residence that we welcomed in Polopos. We first met Boxie and his girlfriend Pascale when they booked a stay with us in Casa 3 about two years ago, not as artists but as tourists. Nonetheless, while he stayed with us he worked on some drawings and we talked about his work and the beautiful message behind it.

Artist Boxie from the Netherlands visiting Polopos in his iconic Mercedes.

At some point on his artistic journey, Boxie was asked to do a mural at a primary school. He would be assisted by 450 school children. The experience of working together with the kids and seeing their reaction and the joy it brought to everyone involved, set him on a path to continue working with kids to inspire them and to make art together.

Beside murals Boxie started making individual artworks for kids. The artworks were only half finished, so he would ask each child to complete it as they saw fit. At one point he received a message from a woman who thanked him for the beautiful drawing she had received from her grandson. This was the last piece of the puzzle that put Boxie on a mission statement that has directed him ever since:

“The pure energy released when we gift the drawing we made together to someone else. I want all the children of the world to experience that.”

Polopos doesn’t have many children living here, at least not in our village at 800 meters above sea level. But our village is part of a larger municipality and on the coast in La Mamola there is a school with 160 children. When we opened our artist residence last year, one of the things we thought of at the beginning, was that it would be nice to connect the youth on the coast with our village up on the mountain. We have a playground, where children who stay here during the summer, often play in. It is situated on the lower square next to a parking lot and there was a grey concrete wall right beside it. This could use some more color, we decided and thought Boxie would be perfect for the job.

Luckily for us, Boxie got very exited when we contacted him and also the mayor and the director of the school were enthusiastic. We suggested bringing some classes of children up to the village to help Boxie make the mural. Because of the logistical limitation of not being able to transport all children to our village, we decided with the director of the school and the mayor that we would pick one class of about 15 kids. Boxie however, did not want to have only one class of kids to have this experience, but all of the kids. So in the end, after more meetings and deliberation, we solved the problem by not only having Boxie make a mural next to the playground in Polopos, but also in the school yard.

Boxie is sitting on the right handing out painting markers to the kids in the school yard.

Every class was invited to come and work on the mural for 20 minutes. After all classes had their turn, the whole cycle would start again, until the work was finished. Boxie and his assistant Milan continued after school was out to combine all the individual drawings into a harmonious composition. The mural took five days to complete and all the kids were ecstatic. Boxie and Milan and Thysa and I got a lot of hugs and high fives and saw nothing but smiling faces. Pure energy indeed!

Drawings of children from 3 to 13 years old and some by Boxie and Milan. They blue of the background echoes the blue of the Mediterranean Sea right next to the school and the color of the school yard.

Two weeks later, a group of 14 youngsters were invited to come to Polopos to do a smaller mural next to the playground.

Artist in Residence: Boxie from the Netherlands