From creative child to professional artist: How travel & tourism changed my life

Travel in his nat­ive Rwanda is a source of artist­ic inspiration. 

Encoun­ters with tour­ists and teach­ing chil­dren are fuel for motivation.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight by pas­sion­ate paint­er Credo Bor­is Harera.

[You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

In the vibrant and cre­at­ive world of art, I have found my dreams. 

From a young age, I pos­sessed an innate tal­ent for draw­ing and express­ing myself through art. I would spend hours cre­at­ing child­like draw­ings filled with ima­gin­a­tion and a touch of humour, often sur­pris­ing my fam­ily with my cre­at­ive prowess.

As I grew older, my pas­sion for art only intensified. 

Recog­nising my tal­ent and poten­tial, my par­ents encour­aged me to explore my artist­ic abil­it­ies fur­ther. They enrolled me in loc­al art classes and provided the basic tools and encour­age­ment to nur­ture my cre­ativ­ity daily, even though it was not easy for them.

Dur­ing my jour­ney through primary school, I dis­covered the immense beauty and won­ders of travel. Each new place I vis­ited sparked new inspir­a­tion in my art. The archi­tec­ture, land­scapes, and vibrant cul­tures I encountered in dif­fer­ent parts of Rwanda added depth and diversity to my artist­ic vision.

It was dur­ing one of my fam­ily trips to the north­ern part of Rwanda that I stumbled upon a breath­tak­ing red rock form­a­tion. Mes­mer­ised by its unique nat­ur­al beauty, I decided to cap­ture its essence on can­vas. Little did I know that this would become a turn­ing point in my artist­ic career.

A fresh canvas

Determ­ined to share my art with the world, I sought plat­forms on which I could show­case my work and con­nect with fel­low artists and enthu­si­asts. It was then that I came across the Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive, a com­munity-driv­en organ­isa­tion ded­ic­ated to pro­mot­ing art and cul­ture in the region. 

At Red Rocks I met many tour­ists from around the world who were here to vis­it moun­tain gor­il­las and exper­i­ence the diverse beauty of Rwanda’s Vol­cano Nation­al Park. Their per­spect­ives and encour­age­ment shaped my artist­ic and tour­ism career, mak­ing that a favour­ite memory.

My art evokes the dreams of the under­priv­ileged and aims to con­nect art with con­ser­va­tion and tour­ism. Each stroke of my brush tells a story, which is evid­ent in my works. 

Impressed by my tal­ent and pas­sion, Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive provided me with a plat­form to dis­play my art­works and estab­lish con­nec­tions with­in the art community. 

Grate­ful for this oppor­tun­ity, I decided to give back to my com­munity by teach­ing and empower­ing young chil­dren through art, in line with Red Rocks’ mission.

Start­ing with a small group of enthu­si­ast­ic stu­dents, Red Rocks and I ignited a flame of cre­ativ­ity with­in them, allow­ing their ima­gin­a­tions to flourish. 

I taught them the fun­da­ment­als of art, encour­aging them to embrace their own unique artist­ic voices. Through guid­ance and ment­or­ship, these young chil­dren dis­covered the joy of self-expres­sion and the power of artist­ic explor­a­tion. Meet­ing the tour­ists who vis­ited us kept their enthu­si­asm unstoppable.

Mission and purpose

As time went on, my repu­ta­tion as an artist and teach­er grew. My ded­ic­a­tion to my craft and com­mit­ment to empower­ing oth­ers earned me recog­ni­tion and respect with­in the community. 

Sup­port­ing loc­al artists and encour­aging their cre­ativ­ity became my life’s mis­sion. Through the sale of their art through Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ives, artists are able to acquire what they need for a bet­ter life for them­selves and our com­munity, includ­ing school mater­i­als for loc­al chil­dren to help them to reach their dreams and goals.

Real­ising that attend­ing an art col­lege would fur­ther enhance my skills and know­ledge, I seized the oppor­tun­ity and pur­sued high­er edu­ca­tion in the field I loved. This trans­form­at­ive exper­i­ence deepened my under­stand­ing of art’s impact on soci­ety and fueled my desire to make a difference.

Today, I like to think that not only am I a tal­en­ted artist but also a beacon of inspir­a­tion for aspir­ing artists and art enthu­si­asts alike. My jour­ney from a child draw­ing funny things to becom­ing a renowned artist and edu­cat­or has taught me the true value of art and the magic it holds for loc­als and visitors. 

Through my art, I con­tin­ue to inspire oth­ers to explore their cre­ativ­ity and appre­ci­ate the beauty that sur­rounds us all. I hope my pas­sion for art can grow even deeper.

Ambassadors of my soul

Tour­ism has played a sig­ni­fic­ant role in my jour­ney as an artist. 

Whenev­er tour­ists buy my art­work, it feels like I’m send­ing ambas­sad­ors of my soul to dis­tant places, car­ry­ing my spir­it and pas­sion with them. 

Most of the tour­ists I meet share my art­works and thoughts around the world, which gives me the strength to keep going, one brush­stroke at a time.

Bey­ond the fin­an­cial sup­port, each sale keeps me motiv­ated to keep creating.

Meet­ing new people, espe­cially tour­ists, is like open­ing a win­dow to vari­ous worlds and cul­tures. These inter­ac­tions provide me with a dif­fer­ent per­spect­ive that broadens my artist­ic vision. 

Tour­ism has changed my life, help­ing to trans­form me from a cre­at­ive child into a pro­fes­sion­al artist and teach­er able to con­trib­ute to my com­munity in Rwanda. 

Tour­ism, and my own travels and explor­a­tion, have giv­en me a strong sense of pur­pose in my artist­ic jour­ney. That’s why I can con­fid­ently say: “Art has the abil­ity to com­mu­nic­ate in all lan­guages with a single piece.”

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): “Tour­ism changed my life …” Credo Bor­is Harera pic by Dav­id Gillbanks.

About the author

Credo Bor­is Harera is an art teach­er with Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, Rwanda, as well as an accom­plished paint­er in his own right.