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- Fourteen-year-old Tyler Gordon drew a portrait of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who inspires him, but he never thought she would actually see it.
- His tweet of a time-lapse video of him drawing the portrait went viral.
- Harris called him after she saw it.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A teenager from the San Francisco Bay Area who was inspired by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris painted a portrait of her. And while he hoped she would see it, he never expected that she would — or that she would call him.
Tyler Gordon, 14, got a call from Harris after a time-lapse video of him painting a portrait of her went viral. Gordon told Insider that he looks up to Harris who overcame a lot of obstacles to become the first woman vice president-elect — and the first South Asian American and Black woman to hold the title — the way he’s had to overcome hurdles in his own life.
“She inspires me and she broke through tons of barriers. I also broke through barriers with my stutter, being in a wheelchair for two years, and being deaf until I was six,” he said. “So she just inspires me and also she’s from the Bay Area, my hometown. So I feel like I just relate to that.”
—Tyler Gordon (@Official_tylerg) November 23, 2020
Gordon, who began drawing when he was 10, said he hopes that Harris can one day have her portrait and that he aspires to someday plaint the official White House portrait. He also harbors dreams of opening up his own art gallery.
After the phone call, he described Harris as “humble,” a quality he admires.
"I'm really grateful because she's really humble, actually. When she called me actually today, I was shocked. She thanked me for the painting and told me that I was really talented and bright during the conversation," he said.
He added that during the call, a timer went off for Harris' cornbread and she told him, 'hold on, I gotta check my cornbread,'" which he thought was very personable.
Gordon said that his mom Nicole Kindle initially did not allow him to paint when he first showed interest. It was only after he had a dream where he said God had told him if he didn't use his artistic talent, he would take it away, that he went to his mom crying, who eventually agreed.
Kindle told Insider that she's glad her son didn't let her stand in the way of his passion and that she regretted that she hadn't been as supportive from the get-go.
"He's painted for lots of celebrities and done lots of work, but he's really a humble kid," Kindle said of her son."He just enjoys playing with his twin brother and eating pop tarts, like a normal kid. He still has his chores. He's just a normal kid that has extreme talent, and that's what I love about him. He'd never let it go to his head. He's really humble about it. "