THE STORY BEHIND QUICKDRAW
In Michael Vargas's words

For over 25 years I’ve told stories as a filmmaker, and along the way I’ve been lucky
enough to earn two Emmy nominations, back to back, for PBS’s Artbound series. My wife,
Moni, and I started the documentary company Friends We Love in 2008 to champion creative
expression and tell community-driven stories. Alongside the films I make art and run
workshops and pop-ups around Los Angeles.

WHY I MADE QUICKDRAW

At nearly every workshop I’ve run, someone sits down at my table and says, “I can’t
draw.” I heard it so many times that I stopped hearing it as a fact and started hearing
it as the real problem. It isn’t a lack of talent. It’s a belief, and most of us were
never given permission to make mistakes on the way to getting good. I carried the idea
of an app that could change that for four years.

This year, as film work slowed, I had a choice: wait for things to turn around, or build
the app in my head. I’d never written a line of code and I’m in my 50s. I learned with
YouTube and Claude as my teachers, one lesson at a time. A lot of people in my industry
look at AI with fear. I see it as another creative tool, like a camera or an editing
suite.

Quickdraw is for anyone who thinks they aren’t an artist. Its motto is Mistakes
Welcomed. It switches between English and Spanish with a single tap, because families
should be able to make art in the language that feels like home, and what you make can
be printed as museum-quality prints, t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and more, right from the
app.

It’s out now, and it means a lot to me as a Puerto Rican creative. It’s proof that it’s never too late to learn something new.

Palante,
Michael
