A childhood friend Chris Maggio, who is now a successful medical illustrator wrote me these kind words on how my art had influenced him early on...makes me feel good to know when my talents have helped others. Thanx Chris! Check it out:
You might laugh at this, but your name actually came up many years ago when I was in college... I was doing a paper in an art history class and was tasked with writing about artists through the ages, people that strongly altered or influenced our artistic direction. I had Giotto, Brunelleschi, some of the other ancient standards, and... Fian Arroyo. The instructor assumed I was pulling names outta my ass and questioned me on this "Arroyo fellow", as he couldn't find him in the books, and inquired to which century did he live, and who were his contemporaries. I explained that you were an 8 year old childhood friend... and we lived in a now-lost paradise. He raised both eyebrows, so I described watching you curl simple gesture lines with a paintbrush on brown butcher paper, how the quiet strokes of the cheap brush soaked in dark smelly poster paint became a cougar with extended claws and long swooping body. How I went home and painted for hours trying to get that simplicity to work, and how frustrating it was to not get it right the first time, (or the thirtieth time), as I saw you do. How, Fian, sitting on the hardwood floor in the hallway of his dark house easily breath out lively images while I mimicked. The professor's response was "Oh, I meant classical artists, but I guess that works." Don't let that go to your head! HAHA But I did soon find my own niche and have been making my mark ever since. But, thanks for the free lessons! I owe you a beer.
