Emily Lupita Explores: 🎨 Celebrating Two Years of Weekly Writing
A Look Back and The View Ahead
Welcome
Hello! I’m Emily Lupita. I’m a travel writer & artist from rural Iowa currently living between my hometown south of Des Moines - and Ankara, the capital of Turkiye. I’m also an English teacher & editor.
I write Emily Lupita Explores - a weekly creativity journal where I share explorations from my art desk & cultural travels, as well as motherhood with my two Autistic sons.
🌸 Celebrating Two Years of Weekly Writing
Wow! It’s an exciting day to take a moment to scroll back through the archive of this creativity journal and realize I’ve been writing (on pretty much a weekly basis) for two full years now. I created this journal because I wanted to share more of my art + creative process and share my beautiful boys with you. From that hope, I’ve been able to connect with some amazing people and have been supported in my creative work more than ever before. What a gift this Substack has been.
Good journey,
A Look Back
One of my first posts (Oct. 2022) was “Draw A Tree: Creativity Prompt + Planting Trees + Mayan Murals.” I talk about ethnorelativity via the creative exercise of drawing a tree, make my way back to my childhood home on a secluded hill in rural Iowa, and then find myself at Bonampak, Mexico, inside a pyramid in awe of seeing Mayan murals with my own eyes.
It had taken me a year (my whole adult life actually) to get a creativity journal going consistently. A proverb I used to sum up my feelings about that was, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
The First Year
Then I launched into an entire year of focusing on 4 themes - a different one each week of the month. This was a helpful way for me to organize my thoughts and share the wide variety of art projects I’ve been emersed in over the years. The rather fierce structure allowed me to secure writing weekly as a habit. I’m grateful.
Some of my favorite posts from this time are:
The Creative MOMent: “Low Demand Lifestyle, Happiness Is the Path, Do More of What Makes You Happy”
Creative Self-Care: “Write A Letter To Your Younger Self”
Artwork Journey: “Granada, Spain”
Lupita Portraits: “Juana Maria”
The Second Year
Some of my favorite posts from the second year - when I did a creative re-launch - are:
Influenced by the Seasons: “On Creating Art to Document Everyday Life”
Reaching Out Day 1: “Last Drop of a Holy Drink”
“Autism Brothers Books” becomes a reality!
The first book in the series - Cappadocia, Turkiye - is available on Amazon -here
🌸 The View Ahead
I feel like I’m just getting started. I’m grateful for my subscribers who support my creative work and encourage me to keep going with it. Thank you.
There’s so much to create - I’m grateful to have this space to share with you. Going forward…
Vote for your favorite & read more about my current projects in progress here.
New Art Shop (yay!!): My new Lupita artwork shop is now open on Threadless - I’ll be adding more to it each week - here: emilylupitaexplores.threadless.com
👩🏻💻 Social Media & Referrals
I’m back on social media - Instagram: @EmilyLupitaExplores and Facebook here.
Please help me reach out by sharing this newsletter with someone you think may be interested.
❤️🔥
What's been your favorite post over the past 2 years?