Our Wonderful Becoming, is a watercolor illustrated children’s book that follows a girl named Hanako as she tries to process her mother’s death. While talking to a flower she meets in a meadow, Hanako learns about the concepts of no birth and no death, and the continuing life of loved ones in our surrounding environment. Together, the two go back across generations and galaxies to understand where our loved ones come from and go on to after death. This book helps kids ages 5+ process their own grief and experiences of a death through Zen Buddhist philosophy.
My inspiration has deep roots from my years as a child reading picture books every night with my sister and mother, to impassioned conversations in my adult years about addressing systemic inequities and building compassionate community. My love is to teach kids through my art. I believe teaching at the level kids learn can extend to everyone else because we all start from the wonderfully open and blank slate of a child’s mind. Their only limit is their curiosity and ability to listen. My work is a weird, colorful guide that asks us to relinquish our minds to openness and empathy.
