About
ARC is the name I make art under. My full name is Abdullah Rashed AlSahli (عبدالله راشد السهلي). I was born in Riyadh in 1996 and I've been making things in Blender since 2018.
Short bio, for press
ARC (Abdullah Rashed AlSahli, b. 1996, Riyadh) is a Saudi creative director and 3D artist who makes looping 3D animations and digital sculptures in Blender. He has spinal muscular atrophy and works without a mouse or keyboard, typing on a phone and steering with a trackpad. His loops have been upvoted more than 1.2 million times on Reddit and subscribed to more than 250,000 times as Wallpaper Engine backgrounds. His work was shown in Beginnings² at Boston Cyberarts (2021), offered at Sotheby's Paris in Natively Digital: Oddly Satisfying (2023), and exhibited in Maknana at Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh (2025). His first monograph was published in 2024 in the Diriyah Art Futures series. In 2023 he co-founded Art Without Limits, a studio for artists with disabilities, with his sister Najd.
Every claim above is sourced on the timeline.
How I make things
I have spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which limits strength and dexterity. I can't use a mouse, a keyboard, a game controller or most things with buttons. What works for me:
- A phone as the keyboard. An app called Unified Remote lets me type on my PC from my phone. I added custom buttons for the Blender shortcuts I use most.
- An Apple Magic Trackpad 2 as the mouse, on a PC, through a third-party driver. When an update changed how tap-and-drag worked, I couldn't work at all until the developer sent me the old version.
- A 3Dconnexion controller for moving around the viewport. It's light enough for me to push, and it doubles as a scroll wheel.
- Blender, because it's free, and because most of it can be done by typing. G Z 3 moves an object three meters up. I tried Cinema 4D several times and it didn't fit.
- Starter files. Scenes with the lights, camera and most of the look already set up, so my energy goes into the part that matters.
Most of my loops have one moving part. I like art that doesn't waste your time or mine, and a clean idea is mostly thinking, not physical work. Extra detail usually doesn't add much anyway.
Longer versions: How I use Blender with a disability, Preserving energy while creating art, Using AI to make my own accessibility tools.
Art Without Limits
In 2023 my sister Najd and I started Art Without Limits, a studio for artists with disabilities: guides, articles and assistive tools. A lot of what we need isn't sold where we live, so we build our own. I told Arab News the goal is to “deconstruct the limits any disabled artist might face while creating art” (Arab News, 2023).
One thing I keep coming back to: things made for disabled people don't have to look like hospital equipment. It doesn't have to be ugly.
Names and contact
- Art name
- ARC
- Full name
- Abdullah Rashed AlSahli
- Handle
- arc4g (X, Instagram, Medium), ARC4G
- u/plzno1
- Imgur
- ARC4GG
- [email protected]