#lacelitober: Week 1
My third year hosting #lacelitober is off to the loveliest start! I've loved seeing what everyone is exploring with the prompts (take a peek at the hashtag while in the IG app to see).
While I'm always open to switching around between mediums, I've been feeling really motivated to draw lately, so my first 7 pieces have centered on illustration, and I'm having so much fun. On some days, I stick to one prompt, but on others, I enjoy doing a mash-up with some of my other favorite prompt lists. Here's a wrap-up of the first 7 days...
{⚠️ Flash Warning: The third image has flashing lights}
I'm combining Lacelitober, @peachtober, & #apriltober prompts today for a play on the concept of cute button mushrooms + caves made of something unexpected! I had such fun drawing this vine-woven cave, which has me thinking of the swamp water-benders in “Avatar: The Last Airbender” tv series. 😀
For this one, I enjoyed combining 3 prompts to create a scurrying little friend who enjoys riding along in the pocket of his backpack-wearing, adventuresome pal. During my teen years, my younger sibling had a dear little pet flying squirrel named Daiki ('noble one' or one who 'shines brightly'). This piece is a tribute to our sweet little friend! 🐿
I’m learning to build a compass of my own, friends. There are so many things that never came with a map to direct or a guide to teach the safest routes. So, we learn as we go, finding new ways of doing things, breaking patterns we want to interrupt, carving new routes outside of well-worn neural pathways until they begin to feel familiar. 💛
DAY 4 // #lacelitober: Trail/Cobblestone Not all at once, but step by step. Sometimes, it's necessary and more than justified to pull back, slow the pace, and concentrate on just one step at at time. 🤍
This piece is inspired by Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire. 🔥 I’ve been re-reading The Hunger Games trilogy for the umpteenth time, but this time- accompanied by @geekbetweenthelines compelling podcast read-through. It’s been so meaningful to return to beloved characters while considering different POVs, engage in Collins’ brilliant commentary on power and oppression and pay attention to where social justice themes are reflected in our world now… aaaand geek out with plenty of cleverness and levity and joy! Treat yourself to a listen of my very favorite podcast @geekbetweenthelines. 🎧
🔥🏹 Katniss reminds me that defiance and compassion can co-exist, that being resilient doesn't overwrite healing, and that every choice we make can change something for good, however small. 🤍
Raise your hand if you are a bookworm! 🙋🏻♀️ For this prompt, I combined mediums in a multimedia piece, pulling a photograph I shot for a Storybookish creative retreat I've hosted several times, and drawing this endearing little bookworm on top. 📖🪱💛 Are you reading any books right now, friends? I'm re-reading "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins accompanied by @geekbetweenthelines podcast and reading "Two Nails, One Love" by @aldenmhayashi. 📚
{🤍Content Warning: Mental Health/Anxiety}
Most days, my headspace feels overly full as if I've crammed in too many things, trying to hold them all - even things that are not mine- because someone has to. Keeping every shred of context that might be needed, so I can factor it in, ready to ease someone’s discomfort or prevent something worse.
I sort them neatly into boxes, into caverns, trying to keep track of them all at once. Some are easy to reach while others are sealed shut for healthy reasons or because there’s too many of them and some will simply have to wait. 📦 And then there are those I've chosen to open to begin the task of sorting through their contents. Labeling them is naming them, and that feels important and comforting because they’re accounted for, and I know what they are. 😌
I’m practicing when to hold on and where to let go. Trying not to push things to the side to free up temporary space that clouds too soon, but to let them sit, knowing they each have a place in me and feeling encouraged that learning and practicing new ways can be gentle and gradual and good. 🙂
. . .
I'm thinking of offering some of them as art prints or on other types of products in the future, so feel free to let me know if there are any you'd most like to see!
♡ Kimberly Kuniko
P.S. To connect more regularly + early access to blogposts, join my $1/month Endearlings tier on Patreon.
Words, Art + Photography by
© Kimberly 國子Taylor-Pestell
Commentaires