♪ -My name is Sean Diediker, and I'm a painter.

I've always designed my paintings based on travel and chance.

I love exploring the human condition as I look to find beauty in true, unscripted reality and then documenting that experience with paint.

♪ ♪ I love merging the craft of Old World masters with modern-day media to create and share unique windows into humanity.

♪ Join me as I canvas the world to explore the interplay between art and the human condition.

Every episode a place, every episode a painting.

♪ When I decided to be an artist, it was full-on.

There was no other options.

It was make it or you'll be working under a bridge somewhere for the rest of your life.

Defining success as an artist -- it was the ability to paint whatever I wanted to paint when I wanted to paint it.

I wanted to be able to wake up and own every aspect of my day and be able to do whatever I wanted when I wanted to do it.

I was very good the dollar, and I was able to stretch it out as far as it would good, and I was pretty much willing to do anything and live anywhere to do it.

♪ As my train pulled into Heidelberg, Germany, I couldn't help but recall the words of George Whitman -- "People come in my door as tumbleweeds, drifting in the winds of chance."

♪ ♪ Today I was that tumbleweed.

♪ ♪ ♪ About 5 years ago, I had an idea for a TV show, and I got a backpack, and I bought a ticket to Europe.

It was an open-ended ticket, and I decided I'm just going to go all in.

I got nothing to lose, and I went for it.

So it was feast or famine on that trip -- hostels with smelly socks.

Sometimes I slept on the trains.

♪ After four weeks of living in various hostels, I was becoming immune to the smell of old socks and cabbage and had to consider that I too may in fact smell of old socks and cabbage.

I needed an upgrade.

I read about the Hotel Hirschgasse in Mark Twain's book "A Tramp Abroad," where he used to go to enjoy watching the fencing tournaments.

I heard it was still around and nicer than ever, so I contacted the owner and offered to trade a small painting for a room.

I think I had, like, $500 to try and stretch in Europe for two months, so I came up with a little campaign about trades.

So I started trading paintings for places.

I would send messages to various hotels and say, "Hey, would you want to trade a night for a painting, or a couple nights?"

and the response was overwhelming.

I didn't pay for one single night of accommodation that entire two months based solely on trade.

♪ ♪ Goodbye, smelly footlocker.

Hello, Mr. Diediker.

There's enough history in this 15th century hotel that I could do the entire Heidelberg episode without ever leaving the lobby.

♪ World-class chefs prepare an abundance of local tastiness... ♪ ...and the ice-cold beer on tap in the lobby is so nice, you may need to sit down and rethink your life.

♪ I sat down with the owner, Allison, and she was kind enough to give me some highlights.

-The Hotel Hirschgasse in Heidelberg and it's been here since 1472.

That was when it was first mentioned in the history of Heidelberg.

One of our famous persons that came here in 1878 was Mark Twain.

He came in May of 1878 just wanting to stay a weekend in Heidelberg, but he liked it here so much that he decided to stay the whole summer.

He did write quite a lot about Europe and Heidelberg, how he stayed in the Castle Hotel and how he came here to see the students performing in the Hirschgasse.

And Graf Bismarck was a student.

He was also fencing here in the Hirschgasse.

He's actually signed his name in one of the tables.

Bismarck was the first chancellor of Germany.

-Ah.

-He was the Iron Chancellor, and he united all the states to get to one country.

-Only after arriving at the Hotel Hirschgasse did I learn that one of my favorite painters, William Turner, did his paintings of Heidelberg from this exact spot.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It was my first day in town, and I thought I'd go get some shots out on the street.

♪ All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a man started spontaneously dancing.

♪ Then he started singing.

Before I knew it, a crowd, no, a congregation materialized behind me.

-♪ The night, dark until dawn ♪ ♪ Seize the morn ♪ ♪ And let it be gone ♪ ♪ Just like... ♪ -He had a way of connecting with people that I'd never seen.

-♪ Keep on keeping on ♪ -After the sermon, I had to meet him.

His name was Fletcher DuBois, and I was completely unaware of the impact he would have on my Heidelberg experience.

-Thank you.

-People want to tell their stories.

People like to tell their stories, and I am the vehicle in which those stories are extracted and given to an audience.

The idea of "Canvasing the World" is basically a human interest documentary disguised as a travel show told from the perspective of a painter.

I get countless e-mails and messages saying, "I live vicariously through your journeys," and to me that's a high compliment.

That means I have been able to facilitate a little window into the world that I'm traveling, and other people that might be sitting at a desk somewhere or at home with the kids, they get to see that and share that.

And there's a stimulus there.

I like that.

I like that exchange.

It feels real, and it feels human.

-Hello.

I'm Fletcher DuBois, and do come in.

♪ ♪ Some windows are open ♪ ♪ Some windows stay closed... ♪ -Ever wonder the treasures you might find in the house of a stranger in a far-off land?

-♪ When windows get broken... ♪ -To me there's an obtuse beauty in identifying people with the things they collect.

-He was an artist.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I respond to those.

-That is a copy of a drawing done by Winslow Homer, my great-grandfather.

I come from a family of musicians, and in my song I talk about in this valley a cradle carved by time's own hands.

And so that's more or less why I love Heidelberg.

♪ The stars ♪ The love and connection came through voice, music, presence, and everybody has a lifeline.

And my lifeline is a little -- It's not a straight line, but I feel very blessed to have things unfold the way they have.

♪ In the windowpane ♪ -While sifting through patinaed treasures of the street prophet, I came across this old, handwritten letter.

-♪ No one to blame ♪ -I love this letter -- the final words of a century-old spirit.

It made me wonder what I would say to loved ones as I took my final breaths.

-Wonderful mother was in hospital, and she said, "I hope you have the comfort in the wholeness of our life on Earth, for when we have lived long enough to look back, we find the meaning in the burden of our suffering.

It has led somewhere, and we are astonished at shafts of unforeseen light.

♪ But love can be kind ♪ ♪ ♪ Some windows are open ♪ -Very nice, very nice.

♪ ♪ ♪ After reading the letter, Fletcher suggested that we visit the Jesuit church just down the road and look at something called the "Tower of Death."

Naturally I had a preconceived idea of what this might be, but I was mistaken.

♪ -♪ Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine ♪ -Upon first glance, I thought this was something still under construction.

The sculpture's title, "Tower of Death," was somewhat misleading.

In fact, it was beautiful.

Mourners can inscribe the names of loved ones on clay, and the clay is fired and added to the towers.

♪ There's a statue of Lazarus inside, and next to him a single burning candle.

The sculpture is designed to be built upon and not finished, and at the base of the sculpture, written in German, are the words, "We are all falling, but we are all held."

♪ ♪ ♪ Germans know their beer, and they know their wine.

So it's not surprising that the largest wine barrel in the world is right here in Heidelberg.

Now, I'm not one for touristic novelties, but I had to see this thing.

♪ It was built in 1751, and it took 130 oak trees to build it.

So we finished shooting the great Heidelberg Tun, but we shot the wrong thing.

We were kindly informed on the way out that the great Heidelberg Tun was down in the cellar.

I don't even know what this was.

This is the actual Heidelberg Tun.

♪ It has a capacity of almost 59,000 gallons... ...and there's actually a dance floor on top.

♪ You'll notice with "Canvasing The World," there's a lot less of the host than most travel shows, and I promise you that's a good thing because I'm holding the camera most of the time, just like I would if I was trying to capture imagery to do a painting.

I'm using the camera in that way, so as the artist, I feel like it's my obligation to stand behind that camera to be the vehicle to that imagery for the audience to see.

I love that part.

To me it's more fun, and to be honest, I hate being in front of the camera.

-♪ Take my body ♪ ♪ Won't you lay me down?

♪ ♪ Drop my hammer on the cold, hard ground ♪ ♪ One long day I'm going to lay me down ♪ ♪ Lay me down, lay me down ♪ ♪ Lay me down ♪ ♪ -Down the road, there was a very unique facility called the University of Heidelberg Student Prison.

Yes, you heard me right -- a prison for students.

From what I understand, it seems like the townsfolk of Heidelberg were often at odds with the student body.

The prison was put to good use back in the 1700s and 1800s.

Academic misfits were incarcerated for a variety of offenses.

Simple offenses like public drunkenness, womanizing, disturbing the peace, could land you some prison time.

Wait, womanizing?

That's right.

Womanizing would land you some prison time.

-Did you see this, the broken glass for the people who were in the prison?

And they cased them in, and I don't know how they made the frames when they were in here.

-The University thought it was important that the students, while in jail, did not miss out on their education, so the Student Prison had a door that allowed students to go in and out for only their classes and then return immediately to their incarceration.

But just like anyone that's found themself in a confined space over long periods of time, elements of humanity find their way onto the walls.

-The reference to the old, Medieval way of identifying people through coats of arms and insignia here, and lots of peoples' names.

-Some students considered being jailed in the Student Prison a right of passage.

-♪ Cold hard ground ♪ -I'm pretty sure that some of the incarcerated students thought this was more like a low-budget fraternity rather than a jail.

-♪ Lay me down, lay me down ♪ ♪ Lay me down ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -♪ Once blueberries grew wild ♪ ♪ Upon these very hills ♪ ♪ And then, as now ♪ ♪ The Neckar River ran between ♪ ♪ Oh, how hearts ♪ ♪ Can be beguiled ♪ ♪ Taken by the beauty ♪ ♪ They have seen ♪ ♪ In Heidelberg ♪ If you look up about a third of the way up the mountain, that is where the Philosophers' Walk is, and Heidelberg has had many philosophers, some of the most famous being Hegel and Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Jaspers.

I think, when I see it, of Martin Buber, the famous philosopher who lived in Heppenheim, would come and bring his guests to Heidelberg and walk along that walk, and anyone can go up there, see the beautiful view of Heidelberg and the towers of the town and the river and the hills and the magic of Heidelberg.

♪ Some will come to see and some to learn ♪ ♪ And some will come to stay ♪ ♪ Whoever they are, from wherever they call home ♪ ♪ They will find their way in Heidelberg, in Heidelberg ♪ ♪ -When I came up with the idea of "Canvasing the World," I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if you could show a window into the backstory behind the people I paint?"

♪ ♪ Most of the subjects I paint are people that I come across in life, and I like telling their narrative stories through my paintings.

There's a human connection in a way.

♪ As I overturned stones looking for local muses, I'm advised more than once that I should visit somebody known as the Candy Man.

Out of respect for the Candy Man and what he created, I feel obliged not to disclose the exact location of the shop.

♪ But if you ask any of the Heidelberg locals, they will gladly point you in the right direction.

♪ At first glance, the storefront window might suggest a place for S&M rather than a candy shop.

♪ As I walked in, I'm confronted by wall-to-wall bodies of all ages and background waiting in line.

♪ It has an eclectic myriad of confections to stimulate your eye as well as your sweet tooth... ♪ ...from pinup girls on soda bottles to candy in suggestive shapes you might not want your 5-year-old asking questions about.

♪ While waiting in line, the Candy Man's wife will ask you what flavors you seek.

She will then select confections that best suit your request.

-It has a different atmosphere, far away from just, "We have to sell the product, sell the product."

-Yeah?

I've never seen anything...

I've never seen a candy store like this.

At the end of the line, through the glass case, I see why people are here -- the Candy Man... ♪ ...who at first glance I can only describe as Trent Reznor mixed with some kind of rock 'n' roll Jesus.

♪ If you wish, you can play a game of chance with the Candy Man.

♪ Roll the dice, and if you win, he will give you additional candy at no charge.

If you lose?

Well, I never saw him take candy from anyone.

-Oh, this is sehr gut, sehr gut.

-Out of the blue, a couple announces their engagement.

♪ -[ Speaking in German ] -He becomes an impromptu priest and master of ceremonies.

[ Cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ After witnessing a number of transactions, I begin to see why people are willing to wait 45 minutes to buy 5 bucks worth of candy.

It's really not about the candy at all.

It's about sharing a moment with this leather version of Santa Claus.

Since the subject of the painting isn't revealed until the end, people get to guess.

It's almost like a "Where's Waldo?"

What's the painting going to be?

And oftentimes viewers are surprised by the subject that is the actual painting, but hopefully that awakens something in them to make them want to go find that interesting thing and express whatever that story might be in their own way.

The painting is the product of the people I meet and the stories I find interesting on the road.

At the end of the show, people would be inspired in some way, not just because of the place but because of the people involved.

♪ To me it's about the experience.

♪ ♪ ♪ This painting now exists beyond both of us, so 100 years from now, long after we're dead, we've created this third entity.

That painting is a document of our connection.

♪ ♪ -"Canvasing The World" fine art reproductions, printed on pearl linen and museum-quality cotton rag are now available.

To order your own fine art reproduction of "The Candy Man" or any editions from the "Canvasing The World" television series, please visit CTWgallery.com.

If you'd like more information on the series or a peek at what's currently on Sean's canvas, you can follow "Canvasing The World" on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, or visit us at canvasingtheworld.tv.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -♪ In Heidelberg ♪ ♪ In Heidelberg ♪ -Heidelberg was my second week filming "Canvasing the World," and at this particular point, I was completely on my own, just me and a backpack and a couple cameras.

And meeting Fletcher was definitely one of those moments of chance that taught me to be more open to potential stories.

♪ The first shots you see of him are literally the first shots I saw of him.

This guy just starts singing in the middle of the street to nobody, and then all of a sudden, there's quite a congregation around him.

-♪ See the night, dark until dawn ♪ -And then the fact that he approached me after, and we started talking, and he became pretty much the conduit to all my stories in Heidelberg, including the Candy Man.

-They have a wonderful presentation in the windows.

They're artists.

This is artistic.

-Not only did Fletcher get me into the Candy Man's shop, but they actually allowed me to film there for the first time.

They have big signs there that say, "No filming, no cameras, no nothing" because they're trying to protect this sacred thing, and I wouldn't violate that.

But because Fletcher knew the Candy Man, he made a phone call and said, "Hey, this guy is okay."

And they let me have access to a small window of time to film in there, and it was great.

I felt like I got to tell that story, and at the end of things, "The Candy Man" became the painting for Heidelberg.

That was very significant, and it taught me that, you know, being available for a spontaneous moment or a spontaneous person is very much at the heart of "Canvasing the World."

And so not going in with an agenda, not going in with a whole lineup of shots that I have to get, I think that was the genesis of how we formatted the show in the beginning.

Even now, after we've wrapped up the first season of "Canvasing the World," I've taken what I've learned from those particular moments, and we've applied them to the way we approach our workflow and spontaneity even into the second season.

♪