In celebration of the friendships created on Instagram, the social media platform recently commissioned a mural in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from Indigenous artists Adina Farinango and Keyra Juliana Espinoza Arroyo. The mural was unveiled on Monday (September 18) on the corner of Wythe Ave and North 10th Street. 

Farinango and Espinoza Arroyo met after they began exchanging messages on Instagram. From the start, the women “full-on bonded” and decided that they should work on a project together. 

“We started [our collaboration] off with a conversation,” Farinango said. Espinoza Arroyo added that as artists, they “create based on our whole entire identity … upbringings [and] … community.”

Farinango (@adinasdoodles), a Kichwa artist based in Lenapehoking in New York City, and Espinoza Arroyo, an Afro-Indigenous artist from Ecuador, have incorporated elements from Ecuador on both sides of their mural, which meet at the corner of two sides of a building. 

A major part of their artwork is how they depict their hair, clothing, and accessories like shell earrings, which are a “symbol of abundance and reciprocity in pre-Columbian cultures in Ecuador.”

The colorful mural also includes the New York City skyline and an assortment of flowers and plants that flow elegantly through the painted images. For Farinango, she uses her art as “an act of resistance, healing, and self-expression,” which is “heavily influenced by the resilience and strength of matriarchs in her community.” 

For Espinoza Arroyo (@keyraarroyo), her art “advocates for her communities” and “creates an intentional space for self-expression.”