Jason Arkles was an accomplished puppeteer in the States. When he didn’t get into a special training program in France, he decided to go to Europe anyways. While there, he became enchanted by a beautiful woman named Ana. Jason joined Ana’s troupe of street performers. In fact, he sold all his worldly possessions to follow her. It was this gaggle of odd-balls that lead Jason to his true calling as a sculptor - and a dream job in Florence that he holds to this day.

Rachel Richardson was in grad school last year, and had a big paper due. She started procrastinating and was perusing a Goodwill art auction site when a painting of a blond haired, blue-eyed woman caught her eye. She googled the artist’s name, Paul Wesley Arndt, and found another website, with a 13-year-old note from Evelyn Wehr. Evelyn was looking for a portrait of her mother, painted by the artist almost 50 years ago. Also: The recycling program at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach, CA. Sounds much easier than it actually was.