ART FRIENDSHIP Storie

in 2023, I met an 8-year-old character named Arielle. While chatting with her as she was doodling, she tells me that what she likes the most is painting and drawing, and I go, “Oh yeah?” Then she says, “Wait, I’m going to make you something!” Since she didn’t have the right materials to draw, she improvised a canvas using a piece of cardboard from a box that was lying around. Then she proceeds to place a piece of tape across the canvas diagonally at a 45-degree angle, and I ask, “What’s that for?” She said, “Wait and see, you’re gonna like it!” And I thought to myself, “What! With technique and everything!” Haha. Once she finished, she removed the tape, wrote my name on it, and signed it.

Very happy with my gift, I left, and the next day, when I got to the office, I put it up on the wall.

That's when I realized that what she had captured in her artwork was a way of immortalizing our encounter — one half of the piece was supposed to be her, and the other half was supposed to be me. Moved by the gesture, I decided to take it to another level. I proceeded to recreate her artwork digitally so I could put it on a t-shirt. Not even four minutes had passed after finishing the digitalization process…

...when my great friend Edwin Sanchez from IconicoRD writes to me on WhatsApp and says—like he was sent by God, or as my dear friend Silvia from Cambio de Zapatos would say, “The Universe and its synchronicity” (little Jungian things)—“Moreno, I’m printing some t-shirts and I have a spot left in the batch. You don’t happen to have a design lying around to fill it in, do you?” I immediately sent him the digital version of the artwork. The next day, Edwin tells me, “Come pick up the t-shirt, it’s ready.” 

A few hours earlier, I went to pick it up so I could surprise her when I went to visit. When I arrived and she saw me wearing it, she got really excited at the idea of seeing her artwork printed on a t-shirt.

After she calmed down, she said, “I want my t-shirt,” and I told her I’d make one for her. To make sure I was serious, she added, “I don’t want to leave without it,” since she was heading back to the United States.

The next day, I contacted Edwin and placed another order for her t-shirt along with a few more for myself. A little while later, he told me he wouldn’t be able to deliver as quickly as usual because his supplier was swamped with work. That made me a bit worried, since I didn’t know exactly when she was leaving and didn’t want to break my promise.

But once again, God—or the Universe—came through, and the next day Edwin called me and said, “Moreno, come pick up the t-shirts.” Uff! After picking them up, I brought hers to her, and she felt like the happiest person on earth with her very own t-shirt featuring her artwork. She ran off and put it on right away—hehehe.

Simply put, how beautiful it is to connect with souls from different generations through art. The end!

 

To see her collection Here