Welcome to SEE YOU—a companion for artists, thinkers, and analog lovers with ideas, inspiration, and reflections on living an intentional creative life.
Today I’ve got seven monthly mentions and recommendations for your creative practice. Join to follow along!
1. The Strangers Project
On a rainy Saturday afternoon I stumbled into The Strangers Project, an interactive art installation of anonymous stories submitted by strangers. Hundreds of vulnerable secrets and stories hung on clothespins, each carrying the texture of the person’s voice and handwriting—both tangible elements of a person’s soul. I weaved my way through stories of love, trauma, transformation, hopelessness, and hope. Then I sat down to write one of my own.
Brandon, founder of The Strangers Project, has been collecting these stories since 2009 and now has over 100,000 stories from across the United States. The free installation can be viewed at The Oculus in NYC, or you can read stories through The Strangers Project on Substack.
2. Facilitating a writing group
Speaking of vulnerable writing, I had the pleasure of facilitating a group of ten writers through Ouroboros, a seven week writing group for artists! Many of these writers received feedback on their writing for the first time ever. It’s such a huge, scary thing to share and practice being seen, so I’m really proud of these writers showing up bravely for their writing practice.
Here’s a very sweet testimonial from artist and writer Emily Wilson:
Carolyn created a safe and inviting space to practice being seen. With her warm guidance and the support of lovely fellow writers, I strengthened my relationship to writing on many levels, from idea generation to public sharing. I came away with both practical and imaginative tools to inform my whole writing process.
Ouroboros will be back in late summer/early fall—get on the waitlist here if you’re interested!
3. Herbal medicine
This spring I entered my baby herbalist era, studying with herbal practitioners Sophie Cozine and Marisa Clementi. Over six weeks we made elixirs, bitters, oils, and flower essences with spring herbs and flowers.
I learned an incredible amount about plant medicine that will need several more years to properly digest. For example—did you know that plants like mugwort or marshmallow that have silvery undersides are lunar herbs, good for softening and dreaming?
4. The notebook as home
After circling around a memoir/self-help writing project all month, trying to draft in Scrivener and set word counts and make a dreadful outline, I find myself coming home to where all my ideas begin—in my diary.
I am both enamored by intellectual pursuits (like digital gardening!) and find them not entirely helpful for my intuitive creative process. After a month of flailing with writing, I’m seeing a new possibility. Perhaps my simple drawings paired with heavier words point to the shape I’m seeking.
5. Two art markets
Thank you friends and readers who stopped by my local art markets this month! I was especially excited to table at Sunnyday Art Market, where I got to table next to designer Sam Lee and nerd out over risograph printing. I picked up some new Megan Wang stickers and grabbed Mango Town stickers for a friend.
6. Clockwatchers
My friend Daniela and I watched the 1997 film Clockwatchers, complete with star-studded casting (Parker Posey! Toni Collette! Lisa Kudrow!) but somehow completely overlooked in culture. At first glance the movie seems like a “female Office Space” but is texturally a very different exploration of how labor under capitalism degrades community, friendships, and even identity.
The movie is available to watch on Youtube (above), or you can read my digital garden movie notes for spoilers.
7. A neighborhood gossip zine
I have found zines in my local Little Free Library and have shared some of my own, but the zine Cobble Hill Gossip is by far the most hyper-local, hilarious find that I have discovered in the box!
The gossip rag seems to be publishing bimonthly, with text screenshots of low-stakes gossip about the neighborhood. The zine feels like analog-Gossip Girl, for the 30+ Brooklynite crowd. What’s even funnier is that the author of Gossip Girl, Cecily Von Ziegesar, lives in the neighborhood (and even wrote a novel about it, titled Cobble Hill)!
Want to make a hyper-local zine of your own? Get on the waitlist for my four week Zine Lab workshop to make your zine dreams come true. Coming this summer!
☀️ My newest zine Summer Practice is now being mailed to everyone who subscribed or preordered! There are a few copies of the physical zine left, or you can order the digital zine for instant download.
☀️ SEE YOU will be offline for two weeks as I head to an art/writing residency. I will be back with a new post on June 26!
☀️ For my lovely paid subscribers: I’m hosting Quietly Public coworking sessions for you this summer! Come work on your website, your digital garden, or art/writing that will eventually make its way out in the public. These will be for 90 minutes every other Wednesday at 2 PM EST. We’ll start July 1!
Oh wow, The Stranger Project looks amazing! And yay mugwort. I’m so enamored with it I named my bookbinding practice after it. Mugwort is revered in both eastern and eastern herbalism, which I love.
The notebook as home got me. I write television for a living, which means many documents pretending to be serious, but the first honest line usually arrives in a stained notebook between school pickup and reheated coffee.