Tchau e obrigado, 2024!

A Hobbit Christmas, my first triptych, and a surprise from The Post

Friends,

This month was a whirl—of sneezes, tissues, and deadlines that is. I’ve landed at last and feel as though I’m sending a final report to ground control: “Worst of storm over. Touchdown successful.” 🪂 It feels good to have recovered from the cold and completed my projects for the year. Now, we can put on some fluffy slippers and relax into a tall glass of afternoon mead.

And so we did, with a Lord of the Rings screening!

During the Christmas holidays, we watched the epic Peter Jackson-directed films (a 12-hour breeze), prepared meals and snacks inspired by Tolkien’s trilogy, and dressed up as Middle-earth folk because why not. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a handy Wiki page for The Lord of the Rings.

Our LOTR Feast! And my Kingdom of Rohan outfit.

On the menu were blueberry pancakes, potato and bacon pie, vegetable omelette, mushroom risotto, beet soup, roasted chestnuts, and plenty of tea and biscuits. My sweetie and I felt like good Hobbits going out on sunny walks in fields and coming home to hearty beer and wine. It was truly a restful, joyful Christmas, and I feel so grateful that we were able to celebrate this way.

🧙‍♂️ Shout out to “the wizards,” a group of folks I met at Tai Chi class in Chinatown in NYC who introduced me to Tolkien’s works and welcomed me into The Lord of the Rings world. Thanks to them, there is a pre-LOTR and post-LOTR Haruka.

Now, about that deadline…

A few weeks ago, I got to reveal my first triptych, which I created for Systemic Justice, a Black-led NGO in Europe that partners with organizations working on racial, social, and economic justice to bring about change through strategic litigation.

They had organized a summit for BIPOC climate activists in Europe and asked me to create an artwork based on the stories, ideas, and hopes shared at the gathering.

The piece is called “The Cloak of Healing: Visions for Climate Justice.”

Three important themes rose out of the stack of notes and photographs collected at the summit: collective action, collective rest, and collective change-making. And as soon as I realized there were three themes, I decided to arrange them into a triptych. Details of the work can be viewed here.

This was a dream of a client and a dream of an assignment. I would love to work with more folks in this space, so if you (or someone you know) are interested in collaborating, please send me a note!

A Christmas gift from my Editorial Mother

Just as I was sending my final artwork to Systemic Justice, I received the news that The Washington Post listed my series of illustrations about expansive love as one of their favorites of 2024!

Image courtesy of The Washington Post

This news was especially heartwarming as The Lily, which was The Post’s gender and identity comics section, is where I got my start as a working artist. It was a little more than 2 years ago when I pitched my first comic to them.

I remember feeling quite untethered then—I had quit my corporate job, returned home to Japan to be with my parents, freshly graduated from an intensive outpatient program, and was figuring out what to do with my life. That’s when I received word that they were interested in publishing my work.

This nod from The Washington Post reminded me just how much I’ve grown since then. And how much I’ve learned to honor myself and my dreams!

And thanks to YOU, dear readers, for witnessing me as I expand and continue to interpret our existence here as little magical creatures in the universe. I appreciate you all so very much. 🌍

P.S. Merci for taking last month’s poll and sending me feedback. I’ll be opening up a donation option for this newsletter in 2025 so any readers who want to contribute will be able to.

Soul spark ✨

What’s been inspiring me lately

I’m currently reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Wind, Sand and Stars, an autobiographical account of his freeing and perilous work as a mail carrier, flying sacks of mail in a rickety plane across freshly-mapped lands.

Image courtesy of openlibrary.org

The prologue in this book continues to loaf like a cat, content in the sunlit corner of my brain. As we skate into the new year, I leave you with his words:

In my mind’s eye I still have the image of my first night flight in Argentina. It was a dark night, with only occasional scattered lights glittering like stars on the plain.

Each one, in that ocean of shadows, was a sign of the miracle of consciousness. In one home people were reading, or thinking, or sharing confidences. In another, perhaps, they were searching through space, wearying themselves with the mathematics of the Andromeda nebula. In another they were making love. These small flames shone far apart in the landscape, demanding their fuel. Even the most unassuming of them, the flame of the poet, the teacher or the carpenter. But among these living stars, how many closed windows, how many extinct stars, how many sleeping men…

We must surely seek unity. We must surely seek to communicate with some of those fires burning far apart in the landscape. (Saint-Exupéry, 1939 (2000 edition), p. 3)

With love, solidarity, and big dreams, we step in.

🌟

Haruka