by Joan Aguon Charfauros

Guam - The seventh installment of the Guam Art Exhibit, better known as GAX, is currently underway. To help kick things off, a special guest was flown in.

Global artist Tristan Eaton was born in Los Angeles and began pursuing his street art as a teenager and has painted all over the world since then. Having just finished a mural for Versace in Hawaii, Eaton then hopped back on a plane do to a few more paintings in Detroit and New York before making his way to Guam. Traveling all over the world has given Eaton the inspiration for what and how he paints.

"I take inspiration from all things in the world my work is very kind of collage based so typically ill choose a silhouette, if it's a person or a thing and recreate that object with silhouettes of patterns and imagery that I love so there's some references to Guam and other references things of beauty and things that inspire me," he told KUAM News.

Eaton was brought to Guam to not only spray paint a one of a kind mural on the outside wall of The Plaza in Tumon but also to help elevate the growing art scene on island. "Well, luckily the city of Guam invited me to come and paint this wall and its happening at the same time as the art festival exhibition and film festival so a lot of cool stuff happening on the island right now," he explained.

Murals are large paintings and can take up to a number of days to be completed, but for Eaton, who's passion and lifestyle is art, he says it just all depends on how much detail is put into his work. "It's hard to say, sometimes murals this big I've done in one day then sometimes they take me four days but I want it to be really detailed something beautiful," he shared. "Something people would be proud of, something that will inspire people to do more of that kind of thing here. So maybe two to three days something like that, I leave on Sunday so it has to be done by then no matter what."

According to Eaton, art is a process and takes time to master or even perfect. With the art community on Guam growing, he reassures artists that it can sometimes be a struggle to get noticed but it is a work in progress. He offers this piece of advice.

"The only advice you can give to an artist is to never stop doing it I mean the thing that helped me was that I realized that when I'm eighty years old I'll still be making art when I'm fifty years old I'll still be making art so whatever happens along the way doesn't matter cause I'll be doing it my whole life and you just kind of have to settle into the idea that it's a lifelong commitment," he said.

While on Guam, Eaton hopes to get the chance to explore the island during his down time, saying, "I'd like to get in the water, you know, do some diving, see some sea life, that's what I'm looking forward to most I think."

In the meantime, you can view all the amazing artwork at GAX VII throughout the month of July. The exhibit is located on the second floor of The Plaza, right above DNA Evolution.