Community & Business
23 September, 2022
Artist leaves his mark on region
AFTER taking to Facebook to promote his artwork and possibly grab a commission or two, artist Martin Andrés Gómez Mercado from Chile, was completely inundated with requests from locals to do murals, tattoos, canvases and more – a response he was not expecting.
Martin initially travelled to Australia from New Zealand after he was invited to participate in a street art festival in Brisbane and is now in the process of completing his 88 days of his working holiday visa.
Mareeba is famous in backpacking circles so it was an obvious choice for Martin to spend some time working and living in the region.
He was even invited to present some of his work at the recent Orin Aya festival at Rossville, 300km north of Cairns.
Martin has always been artistic but took it seriously when he was 15 years old, he started as a graffiti artist before moving to other areas of art.
“Painting is always a puzzle, you never know how it is going to come up until you gather all the pieces,” he said.
“As an artist everyplace, you paint works to showcase your art, so in that case coming from New Zealand and getting invited from another country was amazing.”
He took to the Mareeba Community Noticeboard to promote his art and see if any-one was interested in commissioning him.
Martin was completely swamped with requests with around 30 people messaging him asking to do some art, either a mural or a painting for them.
“I never expected that not at all, I was imagining there were going to be around three people contacting me,” he said.
“It is always nice when things like that happen and you get that kind of reach with one post, photo, mural, painting or even one event, it helps your career
“It is great to get in touch with local communities as well, when you go to a new place it is always nice to be able to contribute in a way.”
Martin is currently in the process of doing two murals, one in Cairns and another on a local farm in Mareeba.
