Pictured Above: Leslie Alpha Bestulic’s stand at the Gulfport First Friday Art Walk. (USF/Baron Reichenbach)
By Baron Reichenbach
Leslie Alpha Bestulic is an artist and a teacher with a story to tell about self-love and pursuing passion.
Based out of Pinellas County in Florida, she was present at the Gulfport First Friday Art Walk for March 2021. From her stand along Beach Boulevard South, she shared the focus of her interdisciplinary storytelling: sketches of a fictional character named “Lg.”
“Lg is a little girl who lives in a forest made of stars,” Bestulic said. She describes the character as her “voice through the simple ‘visual download’ to illustrate love and the meaningfulness of the individual unique journey and its role of connection and alignment.”
Bestulic designed Lg as a way to convey a sense of love and direction, with children being her target audience.
Lg was born from Bestulic’s sketchpad during a tumultuous time in her life. She made the decision to return to school for an interdisciplinary study of art, education and psychology.
Bestulic’s Meet Lg project is an interdisciplinary endeavor, combining the understanding she took away from her studies and the message she wanted to present in a mixture of writing, illustrations and other media.
She seeks to encourage readers and viewers to pursue their passions, let go of the unnecessary and address the “paradox of authenticity” – pursuing personal uniqueness as a way to enhance collective identity and purpose.
Meet Lg is an ongoing project, a “story, journal and worksop,” and currently consists of a website and two products: a set of Lg affirmation greeting cards and a paperback book, Meet Lg: Amazing Grace.