Throwback to Creative Exploration: My Kingdom Arts Journey

“What is written once may be lost; what is written twice endures.” ~Scribal Proverb

You Won’t Believe This!

Look what I used to do on purpose for fun!

I stumbled across the documentation and photo for a Kingdom Arts & Sciences competition entry by accident. This happened when I was cleaning out old digital storage. I had created these sometime before 2010 and is basically all archaeology at this point. Back then, my hands were routinely stained with pigment. I thought, “Yes, grinding pigments into paint by hand sounds like a perfectly reasonable hobby.”

The piece was inspired by the Godescalc Evangelistary, and yes — I made the pigment paint myself. On purpose. Repeatedly. With notes.

At the time, this all felt completely normal.

Documentation: not an afterthought, but a lifestyle choice

Back then, documentation wasn’t something you slapped together at the last minute. It was practically a second project. If you didn’t explain how you did the thing, did you even do the thing?

So I documented everything:

• pigment sources
• grinding methods
• binders
• tests
• adjustments
• probably my mood at the time (okay, maybe not that, but close)

🥁 Drum roll, please… 🥁🥁🥁
…and behold! The original Kingdom Arts & Sciences documentation that went with this piece. It’s totally complete with pigment notes and process details. It also serves as undeniable proof that Past Me took very thorough notes. Past Me thought this was a perfectly normal way to have fun.

The documentation wasn’t separate from the art — it was part of the art. If the paint had a personality, I wanted that on record, too.

Why this entry existed

Kingdom A&S competitions gave me a reason to go all in. They encouraged curiosity, experimentation, and that slightly obsessive need to know for sure before moving on.

Also, deadlines help.

Mostly, though, this piece existed because I wanted to see if I could do it. I enjoyed explaining myself almost as much as I enjoyed making the thing.

I don’t do this anymore (no regrets)

I don’t make painted illumination or handmade pigments now. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. I really did.

But creative interests wander. My interests changed over time. They shifted from pigments to pens and from brushes to blogs. They moved from “let me show you how I made this” to “let me tell you why this mattered.”

And honestly? I’m okay with that.

The best part of finding this again

What made me smile wasn’t the finished piece. It was the patience. The care. The earnest seriousness with which Past Me approached a hand painted image and thought, “Yes. This deserves footnotes.”

She wasn’t wrong.

So for this Throwback Thursday, here’s a small glimpse into an earlier chapter of my creative life. In that chapter, my hands were messy and my notes were thorough. My idea of fun involved a lot more grinding and a lot less typing.

Some habits fade. The curiosity doesn’t.