Welcome back!
In continuation of Arts & Culture Month, we interviewed Fallbrook-based artist, Bodhi Smith. Bodhi is known for his dreamy, ethereal landscapes, featured in local wineries and galleries alike.
Keep reading for an exclusive interview with Bodhi, where he shares his favorite international image and insight into the importance of stillness.
"Spellbound"
Tell us about the photo (where/when/why you traveled there)
This impression is entitled, “Spellbound”…Pictured in the photo is the Ahu Tongariki with its 15 Moai (statues) at night under a crescent moon and the stars. It was captured in July of 2019 while on my third visit to the remote South Pacific island of Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island) to see a partial solar eclipse. This tiny island is located 2180 miles from the west coast of South America and is a territory of the country of Chile.
When I was a 10-year old kid, I saw a painting of Easter Island one day during a lesson in school. I asked my teacher if it was real, and she told me "yes"...She showed me a book on Easter Island, and instantly I was hooked I was bewitched by its mystery and attracted to its exotic beauty. The island and its unique statues looking like big heads were like nothing else I'd ever seen before, and there's nothing like them anywhere on this planet...one look was all it took. I even told my teacher right there and then that I was going to travel to the island and see the statues one day. Which I did, not just once, but four times now I’ve travelled to Easter Island, including in October of 2024 to witness a rarely seen total annular solar eclipse on the island...
The remoteness of the island of Rapa Nui makes it a destination to where not many people have ever travelled. It's a tiny little island all alone in the waters of the eastern part pof the South Pacific Ocean, nothing close by at all, surrounded by only the sea for thousands of miles in every direction, with the nearest land over 2000 miles away. It's the most remote and isolated place in the world...And I made up my mind on that day as a child that I would visit the island and see its mystique in person one day when I had the means...
Rapa Nui is my favourite place to go on this Earth, I have such a strong affinity for it. The remoteness, the moai (statues), the slow-pace of life, the po'e and empanadas, the Southern Hemisphere Milky-Way, the Southern Cross and brightly glowing stars in the dark night sky, the waves crashing into the volcanic beaches, the sensual and radiant moon as it rises over the island...
There's just something about it that draws me in, draws me back to it time and time again, I truly love it there...And the moai, they just remain mysterious and obscure in the light of the rest of the rapidly changing world. Time has sort of left Rapa Nui behind, another fact that makes this island so appealing to me...Rapa Nui seriously changed me forever. After my first look, it was amor a primera vista (love at first sight), I swallowed the hook, that was all it took, i've never looked back since, only wishing I could visit more often...
As humans, we always seem to want more once we get something. This is not always a bad thing, for it lets us chase new highs. But sometimes you just need to be content with the moments you get. For I have those moments special to hold onto until the next time I get to see the island. This makes Easter Island even more special to me, more romantic because I cannot visit all the time. An old wise adage states, "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and I long for my next visit, and I dream of returning...
But this is a not a permanent feeling, just a temporary situation. When I'm away, I dearly long to feel it with my senses, and awaken from my dreams when I return. I remain vigilant and patient and hopeful, as I know we will meet again really soon and the island will fill up all my senses once anew...
A mystique that I just cannot stay away from no matter how hard I try, and I find again and again, that I'm compelled to travel to this tiny and remote South Pacific Island, returning over and over and over, so strangely beautiful, so exotic, captivating, fascinating, and magical for my soul, forever smitten and spellbound...Ella esta mi isla de suenos...
You see, if you are patient for the right moment, your dreams can come true if you seek them out and chase after them. the 10 yeare-old inside me did just that, and I'm the happiest man in the world for doing so. Easter Island saved me in every way and has since altered the path I walk in life. I owe it everything. I love Rapa Nui with all my heart, and soon we will be together much more often, that you can count on...
1/1 Framed "Spellbound" Message for Inquiries
What was your favorite cultural experience in Rapa Nui?
What I love about Rapanui is how the Island maintains its identity by remaining relatively disconnected from the rest of the world…This island forces you to experience its culture raw and real and unspoiled as it’s always been, before technology distorted our views and distracted our attention and focus. And truly that which is missing from Rapa Nui, is exactly what makes it so appealing, so beautiful to me...seems the island is missing allot, while not missing anything truly important at all...
There are no neon signs, no billboards of advertisements, no city lights, no freeways or overpasses, or speeding cars (maximum speed limit on island is 60 km/hr), no commutes or road rage...No buildings taller than 25 feet high, no corporate parks or warehouses, no McDonalds, Starbucks or fast food chains, no Walmart or department stores or giant supermarkets with huge parking lots, no cell phone towers and satellite dishes, no drones flying around...
So much is missing, and that's so damned good. There's no western corporatocracy, no traffic lights or smog, no drive-thrus or 7-11 convenience stores, no beggars, nor homeless people on the streets or trash and litter anywhere, no graffiti spray-painted about...no condos and apartment complexes or housing developments, no big luxury resorts or even any hotel chains, no outlet stores and auto malls...no amusement park, zip-lines, wax museums or red-light district, no crazy noise and street corners filled with protestors...always so very few people scattered out on this tiny island that is only 14 miles across...
And that's exactly yet another reason why this is my favourite island, the simple fact that Easter Island does not have those kind of amenities, those distractions, those noises. It's missing absolutely nothing of what it's missing...
So Easter Island still keeps away many people who would not appreciate it for being such an unspoiled place on this planet. All those distracted souls who want a big brand name resort where everyone speaks english on a white sandy beach with the choice of a hundred palm trees to sit under and drink a frozen margarita while eating juicy fresh tropical fruit and shrimp cocktail....
Easter island is tropical, but there are few palm trees, even fewer sandy beaches as it's mostly volcanic rock. There are no extravagant fruits harvested here, and no ice or blenders to make a frozen concoction on the island or chill a shrimp cocktail. This is not a resort island where a beautiful location is combined with modern luxuries of comfort and convenience, it's none of that. Rapa Nui has none of that luscious touristy lure.It's wild, undeveloped, and a true breath of fresh air, sweet silence, and peace...
The whole island is considered a National Park by its parent country of Chile, so it is protected by legislation to keep out development and exploiting commerce...I just hope it stays that way...but no matter what the future holds, Rapa Nui, a.k.a. Easter Island, a.k.a. Isla de Pascua, is simply an unspoiled dream, so silently beautiful to me. I'm forever spellbound by its mystique...and I want to go back again because I know I still have things I want to do, and unfinished moments there to spend, to live, and to just be...I feel like this is all just the beginning for me, my relationship with Rapa Nui has only just started to develop like a grand and epic love story...for greater adventures and so many more beautiful moments still lie ahead of me the rest of my life, together this island and me...
How have your travel experiences influenced how you navigate daily life in SoCal?
Experience paradise is not some kind of magical land filled with flowers and music. It's not some kind of spiritual Disneyland. Paradise is our primordial pure consciousness, which is free of all limitations but embodies the infinity of the divine, unplugged from technology and plugged into the natural world that surrounds us...There's such a liberating feeling to unplug from the internet and social media and just turn off the phone and live life connected to nature instead. I do this regularly almost every weekend now, and its really an experience i learned from my travels to Easter Island. It’s something I do as often as possible to be present in the moment here and now and experience the people around me, interacting with them and my surroundings, rather that being so connected to things that I’m really disconnected and all alone…
Read more on Bodhi's blog:
https://www.bodhismith.com/bodhi-blog/blog_posts/spellbound-by-bodhi-smith