MAKING A SCENE Donaldo Voelker

Welcome back to our Artist Spotlight series called "Making a Scene." In every issue, we feature the selected works of a different artist, sharing personal insights into the inspiration and creative process behind each one.

Next up is Donaldo Voelker, who after 19 years living in Costa Rica, is fulfilling his life-long dream of being an artist.

"Like the French artist Paul Gauguin, I interpret a tropical land and culture from my lens as a painter from the northern latitudes,” says Voelker. “I often tend to gravitate towards the ordinary that often gets overlooked, like the hanging Flor de Itabo, a Puntarenas ferry, or wooden worker houses of the old banana fincas."

Voelker’s training as a historian pushes him to render subjects characteristic of Costa Rica and Latin America, noting the place and date painted to provide historical documentation of bringing life to the canvas.

Garza del Sol, Cariari

On the way to Tortuguero, I stopped for the night in Cariari, right near the bridge. I was outside of my cabin and flying directly overhead was the sunbittern bird (Garza del Sol) uttering a loud, primitive call that I had never heard before. The book "The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide" mentions the bird´s “spectacular sunburst pattern” and it “emits a far-carrying forlorn, rising whistle lasting about one second.” It gave me an otherworldly, supernatural sense.