Artist Sends Nonverbal Autistic Teen The Butterfly Machine That Brought Him So Much Joy

September 17, 2021

An artist has sent a unique butterfly machine to a teenager for his birthday after a video of the teen watching the "butterfly" went viral.

butterfly art teen autism
@quaruntim

Odin has non-verbal autism and lives with his parents in Tyler, Texas.

A few years ago, they took him to a local museum and saw a butterfly exhibit.

"Odin was so moved by it that he said the word 'butterfly' for the first time and just kept laughing with joy," his father, Tim Frost, said.

The Frosts shared the clip on Instagram which ended up reaching the artist and creator of the machine, J. C. Fontanive.

"He asked for an address to send a gift to Odin to. We were assuming it would maybe be an art print as a card, but to our surprise he sent us the same exact art installation! We were shocked and moved to tears," Frost said.

"J. C. Fontanive hand painted each frame and built the inner workings and motors by hand. He is one of the kindest and most talented humans we’ve met in this life and hope to get to hang with him face to face soon!"

Watch the video below.