I had just been in airplanes and airports for 30+ hours, coming back from my vacation. I was groggy, sleepy, and needed a shower. Needless to say, I was not in the mood to look around and notice art around me. But then, standing in the line in the International Arrivals hall at JFK Airport, I looked up and saw what looked like a gigantic sketch across the top of the wall. I was stunned. It was so intricate. I immediately recognized it as a drawing of Manhattan. After all, how can I not, having been born and bred in this city?

Then I read the information besides the “sketch.” (It seems so silly to call it that because “sketch” makes it seem like it was done in a hurry. But I know this sketch took WORK. The grueling kind.) A man named Stephen Wiltshire drew it after a 20-minute ride on a helicopter. That’s it. After just TWENTY minutes on a helicopter, he was able to draw this entire sketch. No kidding, I immediately pointed this out to my family—who gave me the look of death because they were as tired as I was. It was just amazing to me. Twenty minute ride and the result was THIS?

I have done some research on Wiltshire and he is actually famous because he can draw from memory! (No kidding, right?). Wiltshire was born in London, England and had autism. He didn’t learn how to speak fully until the age of nine, but rather communicated by way of art. (Sounds pretty amazing, I know.) After he developed his skills and graduated from City and Guilds London Art School in 1998, he began to draw more and more. His “from memory” drawings include the NYC one (which, by the way, is a nineteen-foot-long drawing of 305 square miles of New York City) and a detailed drawing of four square miles of London after a single helicopter ride above that city. He has also drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, and Jerusalem.

His longest ever drawing? A drawing of Tokyo on a 32.8-foot-long (10.0 m) canvas within seven days following a helicopter ride over the city.

Show me someone who thinks this isn’t amazing, and I’ll…you know.

These drawings—because they’re so long—are very small and I don’t want you to strain your eyes, so here you can find a gallery of Wiltshire’s works.