#lacelitober 2023: week 2
Each year I've hosted #lacelitober, I set out thinking I'll do my best to respond with a prompt everyday, while fully intending to give myself the freedom to skip days whenever I need... and then October arrives, and I feel so inspired that I can't seem to wait to explore the next prompt!
I was happy to learn my Lacelitober prompts were featured on the @artchallengeclub + @kidlitart_drawing_challenge IG accounts, which has resulted in artists I've never encountered before participating (take a peek at the hashtag while in the IG app to see)!
This year, it seems like a lot of artists are participating in multiple October challenges, feeling free to hop between prompt lists and create mash-up pieces inspired by multiple prompts all at once. Since this is my favorite way to participate myself, it's been so fun to see more folks doing the same!
Here are my responses to Week 2...
An ode to dear Neville Longbottom and his toad, Trevor. It was delightful imagining what Neville's bookbag might look like and playing with an Herbology-inspired pattern. 🪴 Neville’s such an endearing character who I relate to in many ways. I read him as a loving ace kid who cares a whole lot, but is often overlooked or underestimated. I love his keen mind for magical plants and their care, and the way he continually pushes through his fears and insecurities in order to stand for what he believes is right even when it so often goes unacknowledged. 🤍 🏳️⚧️ 💛 🏳️🌈 I make fanart as a celebration of characters and stories that have made an impact on me and helped me feel seen, like dear Neville here. Yet with my fandom, I celebrate the story, but cannot celebrate the author. I rebuke J.K. Rowling's transphobic bigotry and see the way her characters go far beyond her own hateful views. She can’t control how we read, engage, or imagine, and I imagine a more brilliantly diverse magical world far more loving than the author, while also learning and striving to build our own world into a better place where equality pervades and love abounds. Here are some ways to support our LGBTQIA+ community: @immigrationequality // the nation’s leading lgbtqia+ and HIV+ immigrant rights organization providing free lawyers to asylum seekers @outrightintl // a resource to support lgbtqia+ community locally and internationally @pflag // a non-profit working to create a caring, just, and affirming world lgbtqia+ people in supporting loved ones and fighting for equality 🎙️Aaaand, 2 delightfully geeky and social justice-aware podcasts by queer, trans, or enby hosts: @geekbetweenthelines and @hashtagruthlesspods!
Little Tsuki (月, moon), smiles down from their place in the sky, watching over us as we dream. ☁️ P.S. You can find Tsuki on my Little Night planner sticker sheet up in the shop!
The mighty impact of tiny things… A sip of tea at just the right temperature, the first sentence of a new book, stumbling upon the tiniest treasure in the form of an acorn or mushroom, a note in the post from a friend checking in to see how you're holding up in the midst of hard days. 🤍 Exploring more sashiko stitching, I drew this little coinpurse to celebrate the captivating kakinohanazashi (persimmon flower) pattern. I've been exploring art forms that connect back to my Japanese ancestry, and illustrating as I learn is such a happy way to do so! 🍄
P.S. This piece is coming soon to the shop as a limited edition mini art print. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter for first dibs!
Layered archways of stone float in my mind, reminding me that it takes time for layers of lime and silt and sand to form and begin sculpt into a new whole. 🤍 we could climb over or through so we did
P.S. This piece is coming soon to the shop as a limited edition mini art print. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter for first dibs!
A mixed media collage inspired by my younger sibling, Britt (@geekbetweenthelines). They are the crimson strands, and I am the teal, overlapping and alongside always. You have written beautiful phrases on my life repeated across every page
A love letter to the @uspostalservice and dedicated mail carriers who help us stay connected with loved ones far away, receive packages and important essentials, and help small art businesses like mine ship our goods out to dear customers. 💌
in the middle of something else we were growing we did not realize Haiku to bring a gentle reminder that even when we’re in the midst of something that’s taking every last shred of energy, when there’s no space to think of anything else and we struggle to put one foot in front of the other, or when everything feels on hold and stagnant- that doesn’t mean we aren’t still growing. 🌱
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I'm thinking of offering some of these as art prints, postcards, 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
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ICYMI
Join me at the Los Angeles Printers Fair, Oct. 21 + 22, in Carson, CA.
See my special mixed media tribute to artist Ruth Asawa.
I recently sent off a restock to one of my favorite stockists of all time, the Japanese American National Museum.
P.S. To connect more regularly + early access to blogposts, join any tier (starting at $1/month) on Patreon.
P.P.S. For monthly conversations and resources for creative small business owners + Artist Opps digest of open calls to publications, residencies, gallery shows, art challenges, and stockists, join my Dream & Scheme Community on Patreon.
Words, Art + Photography by
© Kimberly Kuniko
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