Peanuts by FriendsWithYou - Solo

FriendsWithYou is an artistic duo consisting of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, who’ve worked together since 2002 with the purpose of spreading the positive message of Magic Luck and Friendship. They specialize in immersive installations and interactive artworks, inviting viewers to reconnect with and reinterpret their lives through communal experiences. Their mediums of work include painting, sculpture, large-scale experiential installations, live performances, virtual reality, and animation. Making use of the healing arts, modern rituals, animism, and unified symbols, their work is meant to prompt a wide spectrum of untapped emotions, from playfulness to self-reflection, enabling both personal and shared experiences. FriendsWithYou’s mission is to cultivate moments of spiritual awareness and powerful, joyous interactions.

Asked about their involvement in the Peanuts project, the artists said that they had always been interested in using popular and culture relevant visual language to disseminate an optimistic and empowering world outlook. “Given the opportunity to use the Peanuts language, we were more than ecstatic,” they said. They believe that art should be accessible to all and Sparky (Charles M. Schulz’s childhood dog) made a big advancement on those grounds, tackling very deep and emotional material in a very accessible language.

Borkson feels that Peanuts is something that goes beyond words. TV specials like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” are such amazing moments to him. In fact, all the music from Peanuts has had an effect on him. Linus and Pigpen are also his favorite characters. For Sandoval, who grew up in communist Cuba, the first time he watched Peanuts was the Christmas TV special. He aspired to live like the characters on the show. In short, it had a strong impact on his life growing up. As for his favorite character, it was none other than Snoopy.

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