Drawing Inspiration: First Prize

Kimberley Salt’s color-saturated illustration exploring the motifs from Haruki Murakami's 2005 Kafka on the Shore wins her a paid commission for NOWNESS in our Drawing Inspiration competition tied to today’s release of Murakami’s newest novel 1Q84. Inviting readers to submit artworks conjured from titles in the cult Japanese author’s oeuvre, we received imaginative submissions from all corners of the world, from Taichung city, Taiwan, to the Antwerp Academy, Belgium. Entries were voted on by our readers and the six most popular, which can be seen here, have each won a first edition of 1Q84 signed by the author as well as a complete archive of his previous works, courtesy of Random House. Reflecting our ongoing search and support for new talent, NOWNESS editors have awarded Salt the student entrant prize of a paid commission for the site. “Kafka on the Shore explores how things outside of us are intertwined with the things inside and so form a complex labyrinth which we must all navigate,” explains the communication design student from the New York City College of Technology. “With this in mind, I took the objects and events of the book's protagonist, and contained them within the image of his silhouette.” Check back to see more of Salt's work on NOWNESS in the near future.