Making art from nature on Hamilton’s Escarpment Rail Trail

Sitting on the side of the trail on a sultry July afternoon, Antonio Merino sands a small piece of sedimentary rock, slowing polishing its dimples and bumps.

On a typical day, hundreds of people walk, run and cycle past his shelter - a blue tarp held up by four branches - nestled against the slope of the escarpment. Many more jog up and down the adjacent Margate Stairs, sneakers clanging against the metal treads.

Making art from slabs, pebbles, branches and logs isn't a typical 9-to-5 gig, yet Merino treats it like a job, walking about four kilometres up the Escarpment Rail Trail from Wentworth Street South nearly every day.

The main idea is to make a better world, and to inspire people and motivate people," he said.

Inspired by the allegorical bestseller The Alchemist, in which the main character embarks on a quest and ultimately finds spirituality in nature, he started walking the trail on April 20, 2020 - a day after finishing the book and about a month after life in Hamilton ground to a halt amid the pandemic.

I saw this rock, and then I sat on that one," he said, motioning to a stump-sized rock and the smaller one beside it. I found a little rock that said You are loved.'"

He followed suit, and began collecting rocks and painting them with encouraging messages for essential workers, among them thank you," heroes" and other messages of hope. The pandemic has ebbed and surged, but Merino has remained.

I keep creating more stuff," he said.

Merino, who's from El Salvador, came to Canada as a young man in 1989 after brief stops in Mexico and Costa Rica. He was fleeing his war-torn home country, a situation he called a living nightmare."

There is no time for crying, no time for sorrow, you have to just keep moving and surviving," he said of the 12-year civil conflict. You are lucky and blessed to live another day."

When mental health challenges prevented him from working a traditional job, he decided to pursue a new-found passion: making people happy. He has a tip jar, a green metal container chained to a rock, but the real reward is smiles and conversations with passersby.

It's the greatest gift," Merino said. As long as people get excited or happy for what I do, I will continue doing it because I don't give up."

The artist is a familiar face to many who use the trail.

Many people, they stop and look, and most of them now know me," he said. It's a great feeling."

Merino is passionate about nature and uses it in his creations - a dozen rocks placed in the shape of a turtle and outlined in green, painted pieces of wood shaped like eagles and crocodiles, and a metre-wide heart filled with stones.

His aim is to enhance nature, using elements that already resemble animals' shapes. Whatever Mother Nature gives me."

Some of his works tell stories.

One piece - a large square of colourful rocks, outlined by logs - was made for a trail regular whose wife passed away. Another is a blue pond made of painted bark, an injured driftwood pelican with its wing painted blood-red and its baby perched on its side.

Merino, who estimates he's done 8,000 hours of sanding, said he keeps the polished rocks for special" art. He hopes one day to open a gallery or display his works in a show.

I have art at home that I haven't shown to anybody," he said. Maybe one day I can show it to the world."

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com