tabamilk – hanbi's musings

welcome to tabamilk!

Hello and welcome to my own personal maelstrom of artistic content. My name is Hanbi Gim and I am a student pursuing multidisciplinary studies.

I enjoy writing and drawing, as well as composing music and playing French horn & flute. My more academic areas of interest are spread out, but are centered around neuroscience, biology, psychology,  and engineering. I am also teaching myself some Mandarin Chinese and German, as language and languages are fun to learn about.

I like to incorporate my knowledge and interests into my art and I am passionate about fiction writing. I try to mix both to the best of my ability.

↑ With my little brother in NYC ☃
← Snorkeling with family in Cancún

writing • stories & poetry are ways to express my imagination

stories ❡

poems ✑

visual art • paintings & drawings are my passion

latest posts ✱

  • You’re a very purple person: synesthesia, as told by Wednesday is Indigo Blue – Your Brain in Forte – 3

    (Disclaimer: a less common post type. More of a bullet point summary than a written article) Synesthesia: a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway Synesthete: a person with synesthesia Some basic information from the book: An example of a classic…

  • Anxiety, panic, and how to get out of the house: taking control of anxiety – Your Brain in Forte – 2

    Did you lock the door to your house today? How about your windows? Are you sure? Maybe that’s not quite correct. You should check again. Oh, they still haven’t changed? But maybe you should check one more time. And— And that’s anxiety. Maybe you’re worrying about someone breaking into your house. Maybe you’re worrying about…

  • Teeth, oatmeal, memories: habit-building and routines, as told by The Power of Habit – Your Brain in Forte – 1

    You don’t need toothpaste. No matter how advertisements tell you toothpaste is a necessary step in your nighttime (or morning, or daytime) routine, it hasn’t been this way forever. It’s obvious once you think about it—of course we don’t need toothpaste. We went years, decades, centuries, millenia without toothpaste. Not to say that we don’t…

  • contorted giants [story]

    You are an adventure-seeker. You have always been one to venture far on trips longer than the daylight stretches, coming back home with stories and treasures each time. Some outings, you see great creatures towering with heads high up a hundred times as you are tall, and on others, you find some even smaller in…

  • lament [art]

    lament [art]

    Following my growing interest in theology and mythology is, of course, a quick artwork—partially inspired by popular portrayal of angels, and the pointed halo that Apollo is occasionally depicted with. Fun fact: astigmatism (linear blurring of light in the eye, caused often by genetics due to an abnormal shape of the cornea or lens of…

  • because aren’t those all the same thing? [poem]

    To know me you must knowwhat brings me joy.To know meyou must know what makes my clock tick, what fuels my engine, what makes me happy. Something that brings me the most joy is the power ofsoundand rhythmand what they can be used for. Even thatpause, only shown by the breaking of paragraphs, can change…

  • on lasting forever [art]

    on lasting forever [art]

    This was painted for a school assignment relating to that semester’s theme (sustainability). The thought process was to compare solid, mechanical shapes to organic ones as well as to emphasize how some things lasted forever in a way that they remain stagnant for longer than many can even imagine (machinery) and others last forever in…

  • consumption in our community

    consumption in our community

    This trifold was done for the end-of-semester journey (humanities & science integration) project. There was a theme of sustainability for that semester, so we each chose a project to do with it and pitched it to the teachers. Once we were all set on our projects, we got to work on making a positive change…

  • portrait – kash [art]

    portrait – kash [art]

    This portrait was an art request digitally painted for a friend’s birthday. This is a redraw of his profile picture at the time, which was a photo of him outdoors. The final adjustments on this piece were done with a translucent colored overlay of green, which I picked from three potential colors—green, purple, and orange—that…

  • a mango-shaped space [book review]

    a mango-shaped space [book review]

    Description: This book is told in first person from 13-year-old Mia Winchell’s point of view, and mostly focuses on her experiences with her synesthesia and the way it impacts and even causes challenges in her life. From the beginning, I had high hopes for this book. The title was intriguing, the introduction immediately caught my…

  • snorkeling in cancún [art]

    snorkeling in cancún [art]

    Description: A person wearing a snorkels swims along the surface of the water as fish swim around them. The person is wearing a rashguard and a light orange floatation device around their waist. This was based off of an actual, existing photo taken from a snorkeling trip to Cancún, Mexico with my family. I wanted…

  • miniatures [art]

    miniatures [art]

    Description: A golden-framed window on a dark navy background, with the top of a darker bronze handprint on the yellow glass of the window. There is a Christmas tree in front of it, with a few gifts below the tree. For this piece, the title felt obvious to me. As I was brainstorming ideas to…

  • traditional headshot sketches [art]

    traditional headshot sketches [art]

    Description: A person slightly smiling and looking off to their right, done in black pen. They have earrings and short, nearly shoulder-length hair with layers. Exploring details and ratios

  • talent [story]

    “Ha ha,” said the monkey to the fish. “This strange-looking monkey cannot climb a tree.” “I do not judge you for your lack of gills,” said the fish glumly, “for you are a monkey. Please see that I am a fish!” “Ha ha,” said the monkey to the fish. “This fish is inferior to monkeys…

  • ⏱ shakedown, step four [story]

    His hands shooks as he tried to untie it. He was just starting to regret having put so many safety locks on the box. The thought of an overenthusiastic colleague messing with the contents was much more bearable than the weight of the guilt that would be crushing him if he couldn’t get the box…

  • traditional perspective sketches [art]

    traditional perspective sketches [art]

    Description: A sketch of a bird’s-eye view of a four-lane highway splitting an array of buildings in half. It’s drawn with five-point perspective (fisheye) in black ink. This was originally drawn as an in-class assignment in a psychology course, taken this summer (2024). The assignment was to draw an analogy for neurons in the brain.…

  • us [poem]

    i live in a place that i call homenot a physical place, but still a world to roamtoo much that i’ve hoarded and kept out of fearalways, automatically, like a turning gear the tour begins in a dark grayish spaceinto enternity, lighter gray grid lines raceyellow cockpit in the centerinto the ever-expanding row of chairs…

  • a paranoid at school [poem]

    crackas night settles in and evening goes to sleep. the church bells ring nine times. the phone rings twenty times. neither of the calls are answered. onlythe birds cackle in the background. the investigator walks into the house. four family members were reported by the next-door neighborsbut only three bodies are found.no one is left…

  • ✧ 5 little monkeys [essay]

    (read below like a research paper, formally and seriously) “5 Little Monkeys” is a classic nursery rhyme, one that many will recognize easily. Though the most common interpretation is that it teaches children about counting and consequences, this paper presents a different view on the meaning of the story — one that centers around child…

  • coexistence of immortality [art]

    coexistence of immortality [art]

    Description: A red, gray, and light blue bot stands in a beam of yellow light. It is surrounded by trees and shrubbery, and it seems to be observing some flowers in the distance. My thoughts on choosing this title were that machines and nature are tied together by the sense of immortality that people associate…