Cultural talent exists everywhere. Sure, cities such as New Orleans, New York and San Francisco are flowing wells of endless culture and unique personalities. But beneath the surface so are many other cities and communities like Lake Nona. Orlando, and more specifically The Nonahood is filled with amazingly talented individuals whose cultural abilities are as remarkable as those from whom they derive their inspiration.

Think to yourself how easy is it to travel to a well-established, older city and find beautiful works of art and extraordinary people. Pretty darn easy, isn’t it? Those locations have everlasting diverse platforms for anyone to promote their intellectual passion. Let’s face it, there is more of a challenge to unearth culture here, but not because it doesn’t exist. Arnel Platon, father and husband who lives in Eagle Creek, is a great example of an amazing artistic talent who lives among us.

Arnel has an extreme passion for painting, but he places his family first. He is passionate about watching his thirteen-year-old son, Aidan, a seventh-grader at Lake Nona Middle School, play quarterback for the Lake Nona Lions. And he’s just as devoted to eleven-year-old daughter, Olivia, a fifth-grader at Eagle Creek Elementary School who plays violin and performs ballet. Platon explained that there are times he will take extended breaks from painting, and his art altogether, just to focus more on his loved ones. “I figure my art is always going to be there. Every day, I can put down all my ideas in my sketchbook, it’s all in here. I know if I start painting, I’ve got to dive in, and if I dive in, then I’m taking time away from the family,” Platon said.

As a child, Arnel was artistic and started his creative career by drawing the cover of Green Lantern comic books his dad gave him. “I had never seen anything like it, and I was like wow, that’s cool!” Arnel said. At age 10, he moved from the Philippines to New Jersey in 1978. Throughout grade school, while his brother and sister were playing outside, he was inside drawing comic book covers. In high school, however, he was discouraged and stopped when kids told him it wasn’t really art because he wasn’t the original creator.

“If I would have just kept it going, I look at my drawings now, and I’m like wow if I just would have kept it going, who knows? …It wasn’t until Festival of the Masters in 2006 that I started doing it again,” Platon said.

For almost 40 years, Disney held an art contest where up to approximately 220 renowned artists would be invited to compete. After nearly a 20-year departure from painting, Arnel decided to give it a try. The piece he entered is called “The Dream” and was inspired by Peter Max, a popular artist of the 1970s. Arnel won and received the Signature Art Award. “The Dream” was placed on merchandise and sold all over the world. Since then, Arnel won the prestigious award two more times.

When Arnel decides to “dive in” to his art, he overcomes setbacks and comes out on top. He attributes facing his fears as one of the many reasons for his success. In the fall of 2015, Platon entered into the Mills 50 District Art Dumpster Project. Platon said, “A friend of mine at work was like, they have this art project coming up, I think you’d be great at it. What do you think? I said, I don’t know, I don’t want to do it. It’s scary, right? But then you tell your kids if you are scared of something, do it … and so I did it. I had no idea what I was going to paint! I looked at my sketch book, I submitted, and they liked it.”

Arnel derives inspiration from artists including Audry Kawasaki and  Greg “Craola” Simkins

While painting the dumpster, Arnel quickly found out that he was embarking on a new artistic journey. “I started painting it and I never painted outside before …it was horrible; the paint just didn’t work! I just got the wrong paint and that paint just didn’t work, so each one of those abstract shapes is four layers of paint… it took four weekends,” Arnel said. When he was done, Arnel won the contest and was selected to be on the cover of a calendar featuring all of the dumpsters included in the contest.

Arnel loves the “tight knit” neighborhood where he lives, “it’s just a really nice vibe,” Arnel said. The Platon family gathers on a weekly basis for potluck dinners with close friends they have developed inside the neighborhood. He used the residents across the lake from his house as another example of how much he cherishes his community, pointing out the playful comradery that is visible in their display of flags during college football season.

Arnel applies and enters to be in art contests and shows locally in the Central Florida area. Much of his work is on display via his blog, arnelplaton.blogspot.com and through social media at facebook.com/arnelart and instagram.com/arnelart. Nonahood residents can begin to cultivate the artistic talent that already exists here by viewing and sharing his pieces on social media and supporting the events he attends.