CANVASING THE WORLD

[ Wind whooshing ] -My name is Sean Diediker, and I'm a painter.

I've always designed my paintings based on travel and chance.

I love exploring the human condition as I look to find beauty in true, unscripted reality, and then documenting that experience with paint.

[ Bird warbles ] [ Owl hoots ] I love merging the craft of Old-World masters with modern-day media to create and share unique windows into humanity.

Join me as I canvas the world to explore the interplay between art and the human condition -- every episode a place, every episode a painting.

I think when an artist starts a new painting, they're actually giving birth to a third person.

[ Blows air ] In a way, the painting is a visual document representing the artist's experience and connection with the subject.

This offspring will live long after both the artist and the subject are no longer around.

I think about this sometimes when I go to museums and I see these little time capsules hanging there on the wall.

I know both the artists and the subjects are most likely gone, but the evidence of their connection is hanging there right in front of me and has taken on a life of its own.

Oftentimes for me, seemingly unrelated experiences merge together, and they evolve into one piece.

I suppose as an artist, that's the most interesting and often challenging part -- weaving together these elements into one narrative.

In these beginning stages, anything is possible.

It's simply a matter of adapting and evolving with the elements to create something new, to hopefully create something beautiful.

This is Costa Rica.

- Superstar Please have a fresh batch of brownies And a cold Imperial Watching the sun... -Pura vida.

-Pura?

-Pura.

It's, like, pure to life.

-"Pura vida" means the sweet and simple life.

It's one that's connected to the elements, connected to the Earth.

-"Pura vida" is the most famous phrase in Costa Rica, and it really is the lifestyle that the Ticos here in Costa Rica embrace.

-"Pura vida" means actually everything is okay, and everything's fine.

-It means being happy and laid-back and accepting of others.

-You know, live in the moment.

You know, just take it all in, and just be happy with what you have.

-Also can be used to describe a person.

They say, "Oh, he's pura vida," meaning, you know, "He's just all good things."

[ Wind whooshing ] -Deep in a corner of the southern Costa Rican jungle, not far from the Panamanian border, I came across a very unique community.

Its inhabitants are visionaries and take the idea of pura vida to new heights.

It's not all that different than the Ewok village in "Star Wars," but this isn't a movie set.

This is real life at Finca Bellavista.

-Whether you're 8 or 80, you've wanted to be in a tree house or you've been in a tree house, and there's this draw.

So your nearest neighbors are monkeys and toucans, and it's really -- I mean, that's part of the magic.

-See, this is an amazing place just from what I've seen so far.

-Thanks.

-I feel like it's sucking me in, and I can see why people... -Yeah.

-...would be interested in living here.

It's the brainchild of a dreamer and doer, and a true case of, "If you build it, they will come."

-The real estate listing was like, "62 acres of trees," you know, "Harvest the timber.

Make your money on the timber," and we, being kind of naive, thought, "Oh, gosh, it would be such a shame to let this pristine primary rainforest be clear-cut."

We were just kind of trying to brainstorm ways to be able to afford that initial purchase of the 62 acres and, "Well, maybe we can talk to some of our friends about kind of co-oping this spot," and then I was just like, "Well, there were some really cool trees on the property.

Maybe we could build a tree house.

We could build, like, a little Ewok village."

-You know, the idea was that if we can allow the forest to continue regenerating, then, you know, the forest gets a second chance and doesn't need to have its value assigned to it as a timber harvest, and it's kind of morphed into this tree house resort community.

We've designed Finca Bellavista to be a pedestrian community, so we have 11 kilometers of improved hiking trails going all over the property.

We have suspended bridges to try to minimize the impact.

We have 27 zip lines and arboreal platforms that, you know, you could zip-line around the property.

-See youse later.

[ Chuckles ] Finca Bellavista is completely off-grid and self-sustaining.

Water is collected from rooftops and nearby springs.

70 to 80 percent of the food is produced on-site, as well as the electricity.

-They have a volunteer program down here, and they give us a place to stay and then three meals -- three huge meals a day in exchange for a little work, and most of the time it honestly doesn't even seem like work.

I was supposed to end a week ago but can't seem to leave.

[ Knocks ] -Hello?

-Hello?

Welcome to our jungle home!

-Excellent!

-Well, thank you.

-Please come on in!

-Oh, wow!

-[ Laughs ] -You guys are on your honeymoon?

-Yeah.

-We are on our honeymoon.

-And you're accepting visitors?

I can't believe it.

-We are.

-Just for right now.

-We're gracious like that.

-Many of the volunteers and short-term visitors actually become long-term owners themselves.

-I'm building my own tree house, and I brought my dog and my cat, and it's just a very magical place, you know.

I was actually planning on moving to another place before I came here, like maybe in Europe.

It was getting too expensive, and I had never been down here, and so I wanted to check it out and see it, and came and fell in love with it.

-I love having a daily routine that's in rhythm with nature, and that's really hard to find even in, like, surf towns or anywhere that's a little bit more developed than Costa Rica.

-If you could describe your experience here at Finca Bellavista in one sentence, how would you describe it?

-Magical.

-It's growing every year, and in the last decade, it has come further than we ever even imagined it would ever be.

-So, yeah, we call it the Finca Family.

It's a network.

It's a really broad-reaching, very funky little tribe of people.

-Ahh!

[ Insects chirping ] -The mangroves of Costa Rica's Sierpe River offer some of the most diverse concentrations of wildlife on the planet.

This unique convergence of freshwater and saltwater provide outstanding opportunities to observe our scaly, furry, and feathered friends in their natural habitat.

In the 1940s, banana farmers clearing jungle for a new railroad unearthed an archaeological mystery.

What they discovered were these massive, perfectly round stone spheres, some of them as tall as a man, and weighing over 15 tons.

Now, they didn't just find one or two of these petrospheres, but hundreds scattered all throughout southern Costa Rica.

Of course this begs the question -- why?

To this day, nobody really knows.

I'm always fascinated by things people make with their hands, and throughout Costa Rica, I kept coming across these amazing hand-carved wooden masks.

They piqued my curiosity, and it was suggested to me that if I really wanted to know the story behind the masks, that I should make my way up the mountain to visit the Boruca tribe.

Now getting to the Boruca people is not for the faint of heart, and if you don't have the constitution for less-than-perfect roads, perhaps this isn't the trip for you, but the natural beauty you'll consume as you ascend upward is well worth the risk.

There are only about 2,000 living members left in the Boruca tribe, and their original language is all but extinct.

Why do they make the masks?

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -Ah, and did it work?

Did it scare them away?

-Mm-hmm.

-As Maria went on to explain, it's easy to see how these El Diablo masks would serve to slow down the Spanish advance into Boruca homeland.

-[ Vocalizing ] -His name is Melvin Gonzalez, the Jaguar Man.

And if I had to describe him as anything, it would simply be an artist.

He has taken his mask-carving to another level and incorporated it with his own version of self-expression.

His work celebrates his heritage as well as the inherent beauty found in his surrounding environment.

-[ Vocalizing ] -Since we couldn't communicate with words, we enjoyed a visual exchange, as we shared our paintings with one another.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -And I felt compelled to borrow inspirations from his studio and bring them into my own.

[ Thunder rumbles, rain falling ] -Sometimes living the pura vida requires one to endure a storm or two.

Costa Rica gets a lot of rain.

This can make her back roads very dangerous and sometimes impassable.

We were knee-deep in it when I received a call I was hoping for, but never expected to get.

Okay, and just so I'm positive... Something amazing was happening, but I wasn't sure if we'd be able to get there in time to film it.

Weather, distance, and mud were working against us.

For me, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime event and well worth the long trek up the coast.

-Ah, there he is!

Found him.

You can see him floating in there.

These olive ridley sea turtles hatched in the sand only hours ago, and were making their first run to the ocean.

This delicate sand dance has been occurring since Jurassic times.

-So we got to see some of their first swims that they took, and the first breaths that they took.

It was so cool.

-This 65-million-year tradition is also under threat as man continues to expand his empire and consume their natural habitat.

Some of these little dinosaurs need a helping hand.

Enter Reserva Playa Tortuga.

These biologists and volunteers tirelessly stand guard over the vulnerable turtle nests.

-They just hatched last night, so we still have them kind of contained, though they're all wiggling around, stretching their flippers, getting all excited.

-All right, what do you got?

-Right at 20.

-We'll get them when they're all happy and ready to go, and we'll do some measurements, and then we'll go and release them.

-This is this guy's birthday today.

He's about to make his run into the Pacific Ocean.

-[ Laughs ] -He's waving goodbye.

-Yeah.

Here they go.

And why do you love doing this?

-Oh, I can't imagine doing anything else.

It's really fun to get to be a part of that first journey that they take, and, in general, just conserving a species that needs it so much is really important and such an enjoyable experience.

-You can't help but admire the genetic fortitude Mother Nature installed into these little warriors.

In only their first hours of life, knowing so little and charging into something so vast, ambition far outweighing ability.

Conservation and respect for Mother Nature seem to be the prevalent theme to my Costa Rica experience.

The term "pura vida" has become more than just a catchphrase, and I was unaware that my visit to the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary would evoke the roots and primary symbolism for my Costa Rica painting.

-Here is where we rescue, rehabilitate, and then release animals back out into the wild.

Our number one goal is always to get the animals back out into the wild, but sometimes, it's not possible due to injuries or over-domestication.

When that happens, the animals end up here.

[ Bird squawks ] This is our vet clinic.

This is also our quarantine area, and this is also where we keep animals, baby animals, that need to be fed throughout the night, also animals that are slated to be released in a short period of time.

-We received special permission to go behind-the-scenes at Alturas and interview the vets tending to the baby sloths and other warm fuzzies from the jungle.

-They're called sugar bears.

-He just wants to play.

It's not food as much as playing.

He will follow you around.

He'll just want to play with you.

-Yeah, have a sniff.

That's all right.

-What's the cutest baby animal you've seen today?

-Sloth.

-[ Laughs ] -They're so cool.

-[ Giggles ] -It's an unique experience to be in close contact with the animals.

Also, when in the quarantine, they see the emergencies arrive, and it's something, an experience you can't get anywhere else.

-Right now here, we're in the quarantine area in the clinic where we get all the new animals and the injured animals.

-As we were filming the interviews, one of the vets holding a solemn expression and a shipping box walked into the room.

All attention shifted to the faint rustling coming from inside.

-Be nice.

Oh.

[ Squawk ] [ Bird squawking ] -The vets didn't miss a beat and went straight to work.

[ Vets chattering ] -[ Speaks indistinctly ] Yeah, so we need to try first and see if he's going to -- he's going make it.

Ooh.

-That seems like it'd be hard to fix.

-Yeah, it doesn't look good.

-So normally, we use the breast muscles, but -- -She doesn't seem -- -She is so -- She's so thin.

-She's too skinny.

-It was both difficult and amazing to watch.

Now, I'm not sure what happened to that bird.

What I do know is that these committed vets did everything they could to save it.

And in that moment...

I was able to witness in real time the undeniable custodianship we as humans have over nature.

We're the only animals given this mantle, and it is a heavy and fragile responsibility.

I painted "The Bird Doctor" to remind me of this.

-"Canvasing The World" fine art reproductions printed on Pearl Linen and museum-quality cotton rag are now available.

To order your own fine art reproduction of "The Bird Doctor" or any additions from the "Canvasing The World" television series, please visit CTWgallery.com.

If you'd like more information on the series or a peek at what's currently on Sean's canvas, you can follow "Canvasing The World" on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, or visit us at canvasingtheworld.tv.

-Costa Rica.

[ Laughs ] In Costa Rica, there are these giant stone spheres.

It's widely believed that they have something to do with the magnetic pull of the earth, and I went flying my drone over a set of them on a mountain top, and I completely lost contact with my drone.

Another by-product of this magnetic interference was the compasses that help fly the drones, and on one particular shoot, it was coming back.

I went to grab it, which you're really not supposed to do, but we couldn't land.

It was too wet.

So I would reach up and grab the drone, and this one just lost control, and boom.

I still have the scar on my arm right there as a little reminder.

This is my least graceful landing so far.

-We had heard about this fantastic waterfall that's inland from Dominical.

Sean and I go on this 2-hour hike.

Finally, we get there.

However, there was so much rain and so much water in the river that the mist from the waterfalls had wet all the rocks and so on.

It made it very dangerous.

We realized there's no way we can fly the drone from this spot.

-We tried to launch the drone from the falls, but we can't get a satellite signal.

-Sean says, "Hey, let's go to that meadow 500 or 600 yards away.

We can launch the drone from there."

So that's what we ended up doing to get that shot.

Was it worth it for us to hike for 5 hours to get one shot?

I think so.

-One of my favorite memories there was taking the mangroves boat tour.

The way it wound around every corner, you would see a crocodile on this side.

You would see a monkey over here.

You would see bats under the bridge.

We saw so much wildlife.

As we were going up the river, and it's dumping rain, we see a bunch of old, abandoned boats, and I couldn't help but feel like it was a scene out of "Apocalypse Now."

I fully expected to find some lost tribe at the end of the tour with Marlon Brando as their leader waiting there to greet us.