09/14/2026
This was so much more than a balloon class.
It was an education in art, collaboration, trust, and scale.
Hosted by Chicago Wholesale Balloons | Retail & Online Designed and led by the incredible creative minds behind By Jesus Tejada and Mari. I | Contemporary Balloon , 19 balloon artists were brought together to create something none of us could have created alone: a massive interpretation of the Mona Lisa and a ceiling installation, built from more than 27,000 Kalisan balloons.
But there was a beautiful twist.
Each artist was responsible for only a section of the installation. Up close, we were working with balloons, color, texture, shadows and shapes that didnāt always make sense on their own. We had to trust the design. Trust the artists beside us. Trust that our individual contribution belonged to something much bigger.
And then the pieces came together.
19 sections. 19 artists. 27,000+ balloons. One Mona Lisa.
The number 19 was intentional and deeply personal to Blugardināit represents his motherās birthday and became a way of honoring the woman who helped shape the artist he is today.
That made this installation about far more than recreating one of the most recognizable paintings in history. It became a study of how emotion, memory and storytelling can be translated into an unexpected medium.
And that is what I took away from this experience most:
Balloons donāt have to simply decorate a space.
In the right hands, they can become the art.
They can create dimension. They can create emotion. They can tell a story. And when thousands of individual balloonsāand individual artistsācome together with one vision, something extraordinary can emerge.
Education: technique, scale, color and construction.
Collaboration: trusting that your piece matters even when you canāt see the whole picture.
Art: 27,000+ Kalisan balloons proving that creativity doesnāt need a canvas.
What an incredible experience to have my hands be one small part of something this big.
