In January of 2000, Michael and Jill Ives went to Bermuda to run a half-marathon as a fundraiser for Prevent Blindness America.

They’d never been there before, yet by winter of 2001, Michael was Bermuda’s official artist-in-residence; he and Jill were living in a lovely old stone house that the British had built centuries before; and they were friendly with everyone on the island from their gardener to the governor.

How did this happen?

The way everything good about travel seems to happen—take a bit of luck, add a dash of persistence, throw in serendipity and an openness to life and voila, you have the recipe for one amazing adventure.

But like all good adventures, this one didn’t start when Michael and Jill walked into a local gallery and spied a flyer about the artist-in-residence program. By that time, Michael was already an established artist with a solid body of work to show.

No, this adventure started a decade earlier when Michael was working at Hughes Aircraft as a sign painter and technical draftsman. Asked to print a sign on a box that housed a weapons system, Michael quit instead. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it,” he says. “So I packed up my belongings, gave my supervisor four hours notice and walked out. Then I borrowed $700 from my brother and moved to Santa Fe.”

And while Santa Fe might be considered an artist’s Mecca, it didn’t quite turn out that way for a guy who’d only taken one art class—in the 8th grade—and gotten a D minus. “In Santa Fe, I did whatever it took to stay afloat but it was tough. I was drawing all the time, but doing things like signs and caricatures just to stay alive.”

Eventually he moved to Tucson and began to devote himself full time to the kind of artwork he’s known for— colorful, exuberant affirmations of life inspired by his travels around the world with Jill.

So when Michael walked into that gallery in Bermuda he was already well-known. But in true Michael form, it was his attitude as much as his portfolio that got him the Bermuda gig. “The interview was very loosely-goosey,” says Michael. “The director of the Masterworks Foundation—the group that sponsors Bermuda’s artist-in-residence program—flipped through my portfolio for about 30 seconds. Then he leaned back in his chair and said, ‘Okay, now what are you going to do for our community?’”

That’s when Michael’s eyes lit up. World travelers, both Michael and Jill know first-hand that it isn’t just the art that’s important, it’s the personal connections you make with people that make travel worthwhile.

So in their two months on the island, Michael lived the life of an artist-in-residence. He created a body of work and donated one of his pieces to the Masterworks Foundation. He spoke about the artistic process with everyone from elementary to university students. He presented programs at the local museums and he taught classes at the Masterworks gallery.

And while he enjoyed it, those aren’t the first experiences Jill and Michael want to share. Instead, they turn the conversation to their excitement in meeting the locals. “Only people who live on the island full time have cars,” says Jill, “so we had to take buses and ferries everywhere. By doing that we had a chance to meet all kinds of people. We got to learn about their lives. About life on the island. We got to feel like we belonged.”

And that’s just the way they wanted it. At his final gallery showing, people from all over Bermuda showed up— everyone from their neighbors to their gardener to the governor. Being world travelers, Michael and Jill took this in stride. But no one on the island did. “After the show, so many people commented on what a diverse group of people had come. Apparently, in Bermuda, people from all walks of life rarely socialize together,” says Michael.

When they did and everyone talked about how much fun it was, Michael and Jill knew they’d found the magic recipe for making the most of their time in Bermuda: big smiles; outstretched hearts and hands; willingness to share; and an abundance of goodwill. Michael’s Bermuda-inspired artwork? Frosting on the cake.

By Jamie Simons for PeterGreenberg.com. To see more of Michael’s art, check out www.ivesart.com.

Read more inspiring stories from the Grateful Traveler series:

• The Miracle Magnet
• From Tourist to Traveler on A Journey to Uganda
• George Carlin and the Road Not Taken
• Little Miracles from Punta Mita
• From the West Wing to a War Zone
• Color My World
• Journey On, Dorothy Green