Artenz Photography

The BIG BUS Raffle!!

The BIG BUS is looking for a home. All proceeds go directly to the Vallarta Food Bank.

Tickets on sale NOW until Friday, September 18th, 2020!

(Contact me for details barbarastenzart@gmail.com)

This entire huge 1m x 1.5m canvas is covered with Puerto Vallarta Unibus bus tickets. Collected and donated by Vallartans and Visitors. Now it's time to give back to the community. Lets help the Vallarta Food Bank.

The BIG BUS is the most recent and largest painting in the series titled “The Boleto Project”.

At the start of the 2018/2019 High Season, Puerto Vallarta made the switch from the old iconic refurbished buses to the new Unibuses. It was a big change. Cambio Grande! From the hot and sweaty to the promise of AC. And a rise in fares from 7.50 pesos to 10.00. I was am an avid bus rider and I miss riding those old buses. There was something special about them. Every bus ride had a story.

I’m not certain what inspired me to make the BIG BUS. Perhaps just to see how many tickets I could collect. But late January of 2020, I had the idea to make a big one. As big of a canvas as I could fit in my car.

I sent out a message that I needed boletos and lots of them. And lots came. Some came nicely flattened out in tidy little stacks and in envelopes. And some did not, there was a lot of flattening involved. There’s an antique one in among the rest, donated by a lady who found it in an old book and happily pasted it onto the canvas. And even one or two from Guadalajara. Plus a bunch of other interesting stuff. Lot’s of folks participated by bringing in their boletos and taking the time to paste some on.

There are well over 2,000 boletos on the BIG BUS. That’s a lot of bus rides. Collected by everyday people in Vallarta, locals, and visitors. Without them, this could never have happened. And now that it’s done, it’s only fitting to help out and give back.