Fragment No. 82

This exchange influences every part of my life, including my work. I am an illustrator, and since moving, I consciously try to reflect cultural diversity in my illustrations. When different voices meet, imagination grows, and the world becomes richer.

My thoughts and feelings about the carpet fragment came together in this illustration, which captures some of the people who became part of my journey, most of them after my move to Finland. Friends from Brazil, Vietnam, Russia, Belarus, China, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Finland, France, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Australia, Kosovo, Ukraine, Japan, and more. Each one like a small but meaningful thread in the carpet, adding detail and direction to my own life map.

Through culturally diverse friendships, I discovered new interests: medieval history, second-hand shopping, new perspectives on feminism, sailing experiences, mixed art movements, charity work, radical creativity, dark fashion, differences in funeral traditions and attitudes toward death across cultures, and much more. Different paths and different roots, connected through shared time and conversations.

Before moving to Finland, I never really thought about myself in terms of being open and empathetic, but in fact, I was. I simply never reflected on it. Some of my closest friends in Russia came from Armenian, Ukrainian and Cambodian families, as well as from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. Diversity exists even within one country. People may share a passport, but come from different ethnic backgrounds. Recognising this and being genuinely interested in one another matters, because we all live in the same world, on the same planet, with the same heart.