Finding Inspiration and Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

Is there such things as Happy Belated Valentine’s Day? It works for birthdays though I suspect wouldn’t go over as well for Valentine’s Day with most folks. For me, Valentine’s Day is about being thankful for all the good and loving things in my life! My lovely husband Panos, my beautiful one-year identical twin girls Lydia and Zoe, my family, my friends, my art… it’s kind of like Thanksgiving with a veil of lovey, mushy stuff over it.

So… as you may know, if you’ve been following me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, I kicked off the new year by committing to keeping a daily sketchbook. The idea being to try new things. To keep myself honest, I’ve been posting my daily “sketches” on social media. When I started little did I know my sketchbook would end up becoming a bit of a daily journal, with things that are going on in my life or in the world serving as inspiration.

For the month a February a group of artists and illustrators over on Twitter posed a challenge… create a kid friendly illustration every day for the month following a theme of your choice. The hashtag is #kidlitart28. I decided to join in. After a bit of pondering, I settled on “Inspiration” and “Secret Admirer” as my theme. It seemed apropos given it’s February and Valentine’s Day was coming.  I thought it would be fun to reach out to artists who’s work I admire and see how they would feel about me doing a little tribute to their work using my collage style. It turns out I was right — it is a lot of fun! It’s been great meeting people “in person” – well ok on email – whose work I would normally just admire from afar. Click the images above to see the artist and artwork inspiration for each!

So, Happy Belated Valentine’s Day (I’ve been meaning to post this for awhile, for 5 days to be exact…)! I hope your secret admirer reached out to you!

XXOO,
Kimberly