My love for painting is renewed when it sparks spontaneous conversations, whether with friends or strangers. Murals make that exchange easy, but small-scale works don’t, and lately, that’s where I’ve been focusing. I enjoy painting indoors, at my own pace… but the canvas asks for conversation. It leaves me wondering: is it possible to bring the street into the studio? Let’s try. Let’s pretend we’re meeting in a middle ground, like this one.
-“What are you painting?”
-“Well… You know those heavy emotions that suddenly take over everything? They say the more we resist them, the more they stick around. That the best thing is to accept them… but how? One day I thought: What if, instead of showing up in any corner of my mind, they were guided toward the territory of Animalitoland? In that colorful world, surely a wise emissary would welcome them with such warmth that even the storm they bring would calm down.”
I painted them, landing on a soft, cozy ground, and as I did, something inside me loosened. That’s how Hello Shadows was born, a piece that helped me become, for a little while, that character who holds them with tenderness.
It was one of those moments I’d love to put in a little box and give away. I thought of sharing a line version for you to print (here’s the LINK ). Keep it close, and when you see those dark clouds rolling in, sit down and fill it with colors, doodles, or whatever comes to mind. It’s a small gesture of peace for those prickly creatures. It won’t make them disappear (they’re part of us), but maybe it’ll help us coexist with them. What do you think?
*This article first appeared in my newsletter: 02/28/2025 – AnimalitoStories #10: Coloring Shadows
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