LIONEL RICHIE

It arrived at the lowest point of my life. My 18-year relationship had just ended, and I was trying to figure out who I was without it. Then this project landed on my desk.

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Looking back, there’s something beautifully ironic about it. The happiest piece I’ve ever made came out of the saddest chapter of my life.

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This was my second collaboration with Lionel Richie, but the first time we actually met. The entire film is built from collages of dancers, ceilings, colour, paper textures, and Lionel himself. Bright, playful, optimistic. In many ways, the complete opposite of how I felt inside.

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After the project was finished, I made a large framed print of one of my favourite moments from the film. It wasn’t part of the brief—I simply wanted to create something tangible as a thank you.

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During Lionel’s show in Vancouver, I finally had the chance to meet him backstage and give him the piece in person.

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He looked at it for a while, smiled, and said, “I love this. I’m going to hang it next to my Damien Hirst.”​ I was already blown away.​ Then he said something that has stayed with me ever since:

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“You’re not an animator. You’re an artist. You should embrace that.”

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I don’t think he realised what those words meant to me. Looking back, I can trace a direct line from that conversation to my first solo exhibition a year later, after I moved to Mexico.