YAARI ROM: (JP/Indra Harsaputra)

The island of Bali is more than just an attractive place for tourists, it is also a place of divine inspiration -- at least it seems to be for Yaari Rom, a talented artist from the United States.

Many artists from overseas have fallen in love with Bali -- since 1920, artists known across the globe, such as Rudolf Bonnet, Walter Spies, Arie Smith, Donald Friend, Ronald Wigman, Wolfgang Widmoser, Peter Dittmar, Filippo Sciascia and Walter van Oel, have made Bali the place to express themselves in art.

For Rom, Bali expresses the theme of the John Lennon song, "Give Peace a Chance".

"There is no place as peaceful as Bali," Rom told The Jakarta Post during his exhibition titled "360 Degrees of Yaari" at the Sheraton Hotel in Surabaya, from July 5 to 13.

"I've gained a most valuable lesson in Bali that I haven't been able to get in any other country, especially about love and peace. I want to show all that to the world through my paintings."

Profits from the exhibition will be donated to the Insan Bangun Swadaya Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to boost the social economy, education and health of poor people in the community -- including street children in Surabaya.

Before the show, Rom exhibited a selection of 75 pieces at the ARMA Museum in Ubud, Bali, from June 10 to 24. He also plans to hold exhibitions in Jakarta and Hong Kong.

But his plans do not stop there. He also intends to produce a masterpiece incorporating the use of garbage, in a campaign about preserving the environment for university students in Surabaya.

"I want to say it's time for us to work together to preserve the environment, which is getting more and more damaged and is no longer friendly toward human beings. Children themselves are victims of environmental damage," he said.

Rom was born in 1956 into an artistic family and was brought up in the multiethnic and multifaith community of Christians, Muslims and Greeks in Los Angeles, California.

Rom's art career took off when he was still a child, when he started doing internships in the fields of painting, printmaking, film and theater. At the age of 12, he even did the makeup for actress Goldie Hawn, who was performing on the stage at the time.

In 1970, Rom traveled through Europe visiting art museums and painting exhibitions. He became an intern artist in the Brahmberg Jafta Israel Studio and then became an assistant to Hugo Cleef Van, a portrait artist who worked in Cannes, France.

In 1971, he undertook a Royal Academy extension course in London while working in an art restoration studio. At the end of the 1970s, he worked as a private assistant to Billy Gaff and rock-and-roll singer Rod Stewart.

During the 1980s, Rom spent time in Maui, Hawaii, where he built his first studio and retail store. He flew between Los Angeles, New York and Hawaii, promoting fashion art and body painting.

In 1985, he was commissioned to design an inspirational swimsuit collection with hand-painted materials for Gideon Auberzon. Yaari went back to Los Angeles in 1986 and opened the Yaari Gallery at Venice Beach.

In 1988, he was contracted to design and build Penny Lane, a nostalgia restaurant with a Beatles theme in Vancouver, Canada. He also opened a Yaari Gallery in Santa Fe, Mexico.

During the mid-1990s he opened the Yaari Gallery in Armarganzit, East Hampton, New York. The year 1997 took Rom to Melbourne, Australia, where he continued his art activities, body painting and fashion exhibitions at the Brighton Gallery.

He was the first artist to be invited by the Singapore government to show body painting as an art to the public.

Now happily living in peaceful Bali, Rom works in his private Toya Studio in Kerobokan, Badung. Elephants feature prominently in Rom's Balinese work -- he says this is because he is enchanted by Ganesha (a Hindu god that takes the form of an elephant).

Apart from his conventional paintings, Rom's ideas in his art seem to flow freely without boundaries. He has also made three-dimensional paintings, which can be viewed using special 3D glasses.

He is routinely invited to events and festivals all over the world to demonstrate his body-painting art.

In Bali, Rom is also involved in Art Quest, an art education charity project for children.

Rom said he had no plans to leave Bali. The artist is quite content to look for peace through helping support educational programs for children and campaigning for the environment.

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