I aspire to garden because my Grandpa Kuni knew how to tend to the needs of greenly growing things with his quiet spirit and gentle hand. For now, I’ll decorate a watering can and imagine love flowing into soil.
Portfolio | lacelit.com
Blog | kimberlykuniko.substack.com
#illustration #illustrator
🍋 Join me at Takumi Alley for a refreshing, spring-filled maker’s mart at the Lemon Street Parklet in Anaheim! Find me at the Lacelit Studio + @dearmello booth in the company of 18 amazing artists + Okayama Kobo ☕️🥮😋.
Sat., 4/19
10am-3pm
Lemon Street Parklet
201 W. Center St Promenade
Anaheim, CA
Sometimes, you just have to make the leap to see what else is out there. lacelit.com
#illustration #digitalillustration #makingart
I've been experimenting with creative writing in short-story form, and have a 7-paragraph micro-story for you: 📓 "Brave Enough to Touch the Sky", a micro-story about hope amidst bleakness. open.substack.com/pub/kimberly...
#februllage2025: CROWN // I walk where crowns touch sky and sunbeams intersect with frost, glistening like starlight at midday. It doesn’t feel right to hurry past. My steps still to behold the majesty of trees for a reverent moment captured in frame before lenses freeze over.
✂️#lacelitpaperlings
#februllage2025: DRAWING // A handmade gift for Kouno-san (one of my mom’s caregivers). We’ve been such a team during my time here in Japan. I learned she loved cats, and has a tabby named Boss, so I assembled this mixed media collage portrait for her in secret. 😉💛
#lacelitpaperlings #collage
#februllage2025: LOST // When things become overwhelming, the idea of traipsing off somewhere to get lost- in thought, a book, the woods- tugs at the edges of long days, and whispers my imagination awake. ✨
🔗 lacelit.com #lacelit kimberlykuniko.substack.com #taylorpestellianchapters
✂️ #collage
Having white peach as my favorite fruit’s bittersweet b/c it’s not common in CA. It’s rarity makes every encounter a delightful reunion!
Sitting in Acts Cafe, I savored my white peace float. Served in a beaker, it reminded me of my mom, 1st gen college-goer+biochem major.
#taylorpestellianchapters
Stunning! This color palette and texture: 🤩
haiku:
iced-over clover
withdraws then claws its way up
persistence cracks through
We may not see the way forward, but I believe there is one. Like clover pushing up thru snow refusing to stay frozen or dormant- it will change the entire landscape.
.
🍉 Sunbird Fundraiser for UNRWA: lacelit.com/shop
Today: 82nd Day of Remembrance of Exec. Order 9066 that incarcerated 120,000 people of Japanese descent + displaced several thousand more. Words of friend Alyson Iwamoto, “Here’s to intergenerational healing through sharing, organizing, & art.”
📌My family story: instagram.com/p/DGQ7FW7hdDy
#collage
#februllage2025: POLAROID
Just as I pressed down on the shutter, a gust of icy wind rose, sending strands of my hair fluttering across the lens to frame a sliver of the scene. An unexpected happening that feels a bit like magic- one I couldn’t have achieved if I tried.
ps #lacelitpaperlings #collage
#febbrullage2025: FREEZE
Analog collage hand-cut from origami paper. Conjuring up the satisfying sound of snow and ice creaking beneath my boots in Hokkaido, Japan this winter.
More of my collages: #lacelitpaperlings #lacelitjournal lacelit.com
I love working in one color family for a piece. 💙 P.S. Lovely to discover Bluesky Collage!
#februllage2025: FREEZE
Snow’s fallen in flutters & flurries since landing in Hokkaido. So peaceful to watch snowflakes collect on windowsills, powder turn to snowdrifts, & icicles form on eaves. Cut from origami paper conjuring sounds of creaking ice beneath my feet. #lacelitpaperlings
✂️ #collage
It makes me happy when unexpected, happenstance objects of everyday life seem to be from the same color palette.
Right?! I just couldn’t get over it: every time I walk by, I wish I lived there. 🤩
I’m a sucker for stumbling upon boxes within boxes. I love lines- seeing what they frame or divide, where they intersect or direct the eye. I love the presence of symmetry without things being the same. A balance. 😌
📕 More chapters: kimberlykuniko.substack.com. ☁️
#taylorpestellianchapters
Ohayou from Japan where I’m helping my mom recover from surgery.
1) Surprised my mom at the hospital on discharge day, hiding in the hall for the reveal. She kept reaching for my hand as if I weren’t real + she had to check. 🥹
2) Hokkaido eggs = next level.
3) Errands!
#taylorpestellianchapters
🙋🏻♀️
I saw my first wild fox here in Japan! It was so beautiful running in the snow!
Ch. 1:
(1) Konnichiwa!
(2) Haiku while waiting for a flight
(3) Meeting my sister in Asahikawa: warmth amidst ice.
(4) Nervous to try odango cuz it’s so iconic I’ve worried it’d be too sweet for me when I very much *want* to like it! Yokatta ne, I liked it, but I only eat one mochi at a time. 😂
escaping to
the far side of
far from here
Paper moths made with repurposed materials, colored pencils, and found words.
More of my makings: #lacelitpaperlings #kimberlykunikopoetry
#mixedmediaart #collage
I have yet to play it! 🙈 It’s on my bucket list for 2025, but the art has my heart. How did you enjoy the game? And thank you for your kind words!
@oldriverdesignco.bsky.social Yessssssss. Congrats on these designs, friend!
Photo of my right hand about to draw a new line on my iPad. Illustration in progress depicts a floating girl with cerulean skin, luminescent hair, and a simple waistless dress of midnight skyscape.
Inspiration’s a curious thing. Sometimes, bits and pieces from a variety of spaces and places tucked away for safe keeping, come flooding out in ensemble.
Aspects of this friend are inspired by Sarai from Laini Taylor's “Strange the Dreamer” + video game art in GRIS. 🌱
By #lacelit
#illustration
we
could
climb over or through
so we did
(Mixed media art collage journaling: hand-cut repurposed paper, colored pencil, found words assembled from various source materials)
More of my art: #lacelitpaperlings
#collage #mixedmediaart #analogcollage #foundwords #poetry
Thank you, friend!! 🥰
Photo of a vinyl sticker lying on a wood desk surface. The sticker depicts a cute winter woodland scene in a snow globe: a happy tree stump with mushrooms growing up the side + a chipper birdie perched on top, sleeping acorns, and a bunny rabbit. Stringed twinkle lights hand above with snow and foliage in the background
DESIGN Sneak Peek // Winter Woodland Snow Globe stickers just arrived, and I’m so happy with how they turned out. Coming to the shop soooooon. ✨
💌 Subscribe to be the first to hear when they arrive: bit.ly/lacelit
☁️Lacelit Shop: lacelit.com/shop
#illustration #design
We Build Stories in Layers
we build stories in layers
we mix, mingle, one thing over another
shaking things up into a better story…
Read full blogpost or listen to me read aloud: kimberlykuniko.substack.com
More of my art: #lacelitpaperlings #kimberlykunikopoetry
#collage #mixedmediaart #poetry
