‘He said free art, not free MASTERPIECES’: Kid adorably hands out free artwork to people in the park, but they are actually astonishing

Look, if we were to sit here and rhyme off the failings of the North American public education system, we’d be here all day. For now, let’s just agree that it needs to do a much better job of nurturing students’ more creative sides. After all, there’s no greater boon for development than giving someone the tools to create and seeing where their mind takes them.

That said, we now have the answer to why the education system neglects the arts; if they didn’t, then the child encountered by TikTok‘s @damnfourthchaosemerald would become far too powerful and subsequently end up swallowing the sun, ending all life on Earth as we know it.

It’s a sweet, simple, 25-second story with the best possible twist; Ashton was strolling through the park when she happened upon a young boy who was happily giving out his artwork for free. As a proponent of encouraging children to follow their artistic dreams, Ashton enthusiastically said yes when asked if she wanted one, expecting a couple of adorable crayon scribbles in return. Her jaw understandably dropped, however, when he instead gave Ashton a pair of utterly immaculate JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fan drawings, in which the celebrity JoJo Siwa is rendered in the style of Hirohiko Araki’s famed manga.

Indeed, it’s not every day you come face to face with a pencil god, especially one who hasn’t reached middle school yet. We can’t decide whether the age of the artist or the art itself is more impressive, probably because the prodigal nature of this whole ordeal makes it impossible to separate the two (admittedly, we never do find out the exact age of the kid, but Ashton’s delivery of the story suggests that they’re noticeably young).

One thing is for sure; this kid had one hell of an education, and it probably wasn’t formal. According to Winged Canvas‘ tips for kids to improve their art skills, emphasis is put on learning how to hold a pencil rather than draw with it; most of the more actionable creative processes come by way of honest curiosity and exploration, which children tend to have very little trouble coming across, so to speak.

All we can hope now is that Ashton was just one of many people who are actively supporting this child’s creative dreams, because if five to 10 years go by without us ever catching wind of the young artist again, then there is something fundamentally wrong with our creative industries.