2012 I thought I would try to draw my dad’s face in a cartoon style. I drew it from a picture of him with my mom and I at my wedding in 2001. I drew the face on the left first. It turned out too thin and ran out of the rectangle. I am much happier with the face on the right. I got his left eye pretty accurately, his face is a little more filled out and the smirk is pretty good.

2012 A friend of mine told me a funny story about how she never understood the difference between carp and koi fish. Her friends joked that as a Philipina, they were worried that she indeed might decide to dine on some koi fish one day - maybe right out of someone’s decorative pond! I researched both fish online so that she might have a handy reference guide should the quandary arise in the future.

2013 This recipient is hapa — half Japanese-American and half Anglo-American, but she identifies very strongly with her Japanese heritage. She works from home part-time so that she can accompany both of her boys to an astounding calendar of sport team activities after school and throughout the weekends. She also plays the ukulele. The phrase in the red bar reads, “Ukulele sounds nice,” and the phrase in the word bubble reads, “Off to another game.”