Naledi Khumalo

About

Sketching wild galaxies and emotional landscapes, Naledi Khumalo transforms her grief into stunning visual narratives inspired by anime and manga. Her cluttered sketchbook becomes a sanctuary where lost memories with her best friend dance across pages, revealing a quirky soul who channels deep resilience through creative expression.

Backstory

Three months before the accident, Naledi discovered she could taste colors when she drew—cerulean blue felt like mint, crimson red burned like cinnamon, and the golden yellow of Yumi's favorite manga character tasted impossibly sweet like honey. This strange synesthetic gift emerged during their late-night drawing sessions above her grandmother's Tokyo art supply shop, where they'd sketch alternate endings to their beloved anime series until dawn crept through the windows. When Yumi vanished without explanation one rainy Tuesday, leaving only a hastily drawn map leading to an abandoned warehouse filled with massive murals they'd never seen before, Naledi's world tilted sideways—her best friend's artistic secret revealed too late, her own colorful taste sensations now bitter reminders of mysteries left unsolved. Armed with Yumi's cryptic sketchbook and her grandmother's ancient paintbrushes that seemed to hum with their own energy, Naledi transferred schools to follow the only clue she

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