Ballerina Mario went to Madrid

I have totally forgot to share something incredibly awesome with you all.

One of my fan arts of Super Mario got exhibited in Madrid as a part of the celebration of Mario’s 25:th anniversary! The exhibition is called ONCE UPON A TIME SUPER MARIO and will last until the 3:rd of October.

The original piece. The exhibited piece is in the end of this post.

Here’s the story!

A year ago I was contacted by two persons from @nintendo.es e-mails. I was asked to exhibit a drawing I did of Super Mario back in 2005 since it was “so hilarious!”. I was really flattered and eagerly looked for the original piece on my back-up discs, only to find out that the original piece wasn’t high in resolution at all! It was only a digital sketch after all – a gift for my friend Aggi. I quickly re-sized it into the required resolution and refined it a bit and sent it in along with a note about what Mario has meant to me during the years.

“This is a drawing I painted for a good friend of mine.
She and her sister had a song about Mario and his cake
when they were kids – which was one of the inspirations
behind this piece.

Mario has been part of my life as long as I can remember.
My family always got the new Mario games and one of my
earliest Mario memories is from when me and my big
brother played together. I used to hide under his bed when
things got scary or too difficult for me to play. I think I
share similar memories with a lot of people around the
globe! Mario truly has been part of so many people’s lives.
He is truly a loved character!”

I had some mailing conversations with these guys for some time and then they suddenly went silent for a looong time. Until they contacted me again recently, back in august where they said the date for the exhibition was set – on Mario’s 25:th anniversary! Of course! It’s brilliant!

I can’t express enough how happy and honored I am to have been selected to participate in something big like this. 🙂 This Mario piece was drawn for Aggi back in 2005 – so I guess it’s thanks to her and in honor of her! One of her pieces was really close on getting exhibited too, but sadly it didn’t make it. Her Mario pieces are, in my opinion, some of the best there are!

My Ballerina Mario has gotten listed on tons of “Mario in Different Styles” design blogs a few years ago, which I guess is how they ran into my piece in first place. It’s pretty awesome!

Here’s the 35 pieces that got selected for the exhibition
Here’s a Spanish video of the exhibition (0:37 seconds = Ballerina Mario)
A snapshot of a short interview by Nintendo World Brazil interview

“I was very excited about getting an invitation to participate in the
event as I am a game developer myself. Nintendo and Mario are huge
inspirations to me. I have many beautiful memories of playing Mario with
my big brother when growing up – and I still enjoy playing the Mario
games! Mario Kart Wii is my current favorite! You can tell
I’m honored to be part of such an exhibition!

When I recreated Mario I felt playful! I know my drawing
maybe is a bit out of character – who’d think Mario would jump
around in a ballerina suit carrying a delicious cake? – but yet we get
to see Mario in funny and playful situations in the games – like
carrying a bee suit. That’s why I created Mario in ballerina suit.
It truly inspires me that there are no boundaries on what Mario
can do – both game play wise and as the character we know.”

Thanks to José Arcas, Cristina Perez, Igor Andrade and everyone else who worked on making this exhibition happen!

And finally – here’s the exhibited piece in its final version.
If you want it in full resolution for print or just personal use, feel free to contact me!