Since youth and until the age of 16 I painted monkeys with orange colors and dolphins with pink. No one had taught me they existed but an inner voice filled out with curiosity gave me the motivation to travel and look for them. During a low budget backpacking travel around South America and months volunteering at Brazilian favelas as an art teacher, I discovered that transforming the daring and sketchy side of art, graffiti, into legal macro art projects, is what I want to do for the rest of my life. By doing it I could not only change the way people in my country, Panamá see´s art, but also, improve the cultural acceptance in al Latin America. So i travel in order to learn and to come back to my country, do art projects and travel talks.

It didn’t started with a can in hand neither with a pencil nor a crayon. In my case, it all started with a trip. At the age of seventeen after I graduated I wanted to travel and pay for it. For this reason I started several businesses such as reselling imported limited edition Adidas and organising video game tournaments in order to pay for my first back packing trip. These actions had an awesome outcome and I achieved my goal, the needed budget to travel around all South America, nine countries and more than fifty cities in eighty days. On the trip I learned three fundamental life lessons. First I learned that in diversity hides knowledge. Second of all I realized that in order to be happy, humans must communicate. And last but not least, if I dare myself out off my comfort zone, my mind will adapt fast and I will find a solution to every challenge. At the trip, when I felt lonely I walked around the city and start noticing messages trough graffiti. Since then, I like to thing that when the citizens need to say something but no one listen to them, expressing their thoughts trough art is the most efficient way to talk it out. I realized I want to raise that artistic way of communication for my people in Latin America.

A year later I was back in Panama and already enrolled on Business Administration classes at USMA University because I knew that with the experiences I had lived, studying business was the best way to make my entrepreneur dreams efficient and sustainable. The experience I got from developing various businesses, my South America travels along with my outgoing personality allow me to obtain two part time jobs while studying. One of the jobs was as a TV host in a local major TV Channel, and because of being bilingual I had the advantage of being assign to do the interview to internationals and able to meet really impactful people. The other job was as a Red Bull Student Brand Manager, which involved organising monthly creative events on four different universities. In Red Bull I manage to organised big events with great athletes or artists and at the same time I interviewed them for my TV shows, that means that if I was able to manage my time wisely I was able to do two jobs with highs standards completely fulfilled at the same time. The reason why I am so organised is because I always enjoyed doing different activities and by fully organising my time is the only way that all off my passions may work together. I always remember the quote my dad says “He who takes ahold of too much can´t hold on to all of it” so organising my time is a must in order to get things done.

These jobs proved my capability to work for others however, deep inside of me I wanted to be an entrepreneur. For this reason I created a society with a partner and started a business to import spray paint cans from Germany. Long story short, the business failed and I got stuck with half a container of four thousand dollars worth in spray paint cans. I realised I needed to do something about it. Then, I saw an opportunity to leave a legacy at my university before I graduate. This was my moment to organize the first and biggest graffiti mural in one of the outdoor walls of my University; a religious traditional Law-focused university not used to this type of unconventional art exposures. If I was going to do something I wanted it to be big, with an excellent quality so that it could be long lasting, so why not use that half container of high quality German spray paint cans? With this thought I developed a proposal and presented it to the dean. With the approval of the university, the convert all of the expenses and hired me to developed my idea. That is how I end up involving 6 national artists and more than 200 university students to create an art mural that will differentiate all of my classmates from the ones on other universities. With this project I was able to leave a legacy as a proof of appreciation to my university, absorb tons of knowledge from the Panamanian artistic scene, while at the same time make more money to plan my second big trip. It ended up being a win-win situation for everyone. But specially for me because the experience showed me that communicating ideas trough art was not only the best way to involve people from many different backgrounds but also that with a good idea, communication skills and timing, art projects in a developing country such as Panama, are sustainable.

And well here I am. I just quit my daily job and started to to live life by being an entrepreneur. Asking you, the reader to probably host me or at least, lets go out for a coffee because there are peanty of stories that we can create :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because on my first trip. At south America I found my self with no place to crash and no hostel. So internet gave the solution and couch surfing enter to my life. If needed I surf, and if not, then I host.

I´ve being using it for a couple of years and have never had a bad experience.

Interests

If its out there. I´ll give it a try.

Adrenaline and art. a good talk and new food.

I enjoy internet usage and social media, you can find me out there at @andrespineiroc in instagram, snapchat twitter and youtube!

• arts
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• tv
• traveling
• painting
• drawing
• outdoor activities
• backpacking
• surfing
• business
• communications
• teaching
• entrepreneurship
• law
• volunteering

Music, Movies, and Books

From the music I prefer the lyrics than the beat, but for sure I can enjoy a jazz festival.

Music: Astro
Movies: "Relatos Salvajes"
Books: Cien años de Soledad
Art Books: Dirty Hands, david Choe

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I can speak with cat´s!

Naah, thats not true but, here are 5 things I am really proud of:

- Organised the biggest graffiti mural made on my country
-Lived as a volunteer art teacher on Brazilian favelas
-I have an art school / Social project
- Backpacked all South America at the age of 17
- I can do reaaaally long handstands (and teach you)

:)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can give: drawing, cooking, public speaking and social media tips.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, Spain, United States, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

Costa Rica, Panama, Spain

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