Wrapped in a constellation of color and wild imagination
THIS YEAR, THE TIMES PARTNERED WITH CREATIVITY EXPLORED FOR HOLIDAY WRAPPING PAPERS CREATED BY NEURODIVERGENT ARTISTS.
THEY are animals familiar to every Californian: a mountain lion, a coyote, a dolphin, hummingbirds and butterflies, rendered in a way you’ve never seen before. The smiling creatures, eyes glinting, float before a constellation of multicolored dots swimming in a sea of cerulean blue.
The pattern was created by 34-year-old Yukari Sakura, one of several made for The Times by neurodivergent artists like her.
“Butterflies are one of my favorite animals. I like their wings; they make me smile,” said Sakura, who is Japanese American and draws inspiration from anime and Asian folk tales. “Hummingbirds are so cute too, and these remind me of the one from Disney’s ‘Pocahontas.’ ”
Each year, the Los Angeles Times partners with indie illustrators who create one-of-akind prints and patterns that our readers can use as wrapping paper. Online, the designs are available as computer and cellphone backgrounds.
For this year’s prints, The Times partnered with Creativity Explored, a nonprofit in San Francisco that supports a neurodiverse community of artists with developmental disabilities. The organization was established in 1983 by Florence and Elias Katz, an artist and a psychologist, who at the time were inspired by the nationwide deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities.
Sakura has honed her unique style — a blend of realistic and surrealistic, and influenced by such artists as Georges Seurat, Gustav Klimt, Monet and Picasso — with the support of Creativity Explored over the last 12 years.
“Creativity Explored was founded with the belief that our artists are inherently capable and have something to offer the world that we need to help facilitate,” said Linda Johnson, the nonprofit’s executive director. “Our goal is to both support their artistry and lives as creative people but also help them thrive within a community where they can be who they are.”
Creativity Explored’s mission is deeply personal for Patrick Hruby, an art director at The Times who led the 2023 wrapping paper project. Hruby’s sister, Bee, is autistic.
“She’s one of the most incredible people I know, with an incredibly rich internal life and tastes and preferences and curiosities,” Hruby said. “I am so lucky to have a sister with autism, and I want more people to know and love the work of neurodiverse folks.”
“Art Is Art,” asserts the title of Creativity Explored’s new coffee table book that showcases its artists’ work. But opportunities for art to be platformed and appreciated aren’t distributed evenly.
“Overall, people with developmental disabilities do struggle with a lack of employment opportunities and lack of opportunities for agency in their own lives,” Hruby said. “Choices big and small — where to live, how to travel, who to spend time with, having money to spend on items beyond basic needs — those are all choices many of us take for granted and are often severely constrained for many disabled people.”
Creativity Explored aims to enrich its artists’ agency by promoting and selling their work. Artists receive half the proceeds.
I asked Sakura, who is autistic, how it feels to have her work shared in The Times.
“I feel so proud of myself,” she said. “My art is a perfect way to support people with disabilities.”
We hope you enjoy these artists’ inventive designs as much as we do.