january: new worlds
hello friends,
it's been a little while since I sent you my last digest. I know I tend to procrastinate/hermit from groups of people, so from now on, I'll just imagine that this letter is only you and me, here.
where's here, for you? what's going on in your world, this winter?
here's postcard from mine:
body - this is my third winter in Istanbul, that ancient city / cross-continental landbridge, where my favorite place is the ferry. winter here is not very cold, but it's windy and wet. this month, I bought my first dishwasher and a TV. I'm nesting.
psyche - these days, I've been thinking a lot about world-building as an internet creative practice. I'm dreaming up multi-form, cross-platform book projects. a year-long creative community. a podcast. and learning how to code.
here's what I've been working on, these last ~6 months.
a new website world
I redesign my site every year, and this one is probably only 20% "done," but it feels like the most distilled and integrated version of me -- that I've ever felt, in a digital space.
a podcast episode: finding your center in artist-entrepreneurship
I was on the podcast of one of my favorite kindred souls and friends, Marie Groover. We had the most nourishing conversation about art, following intuition, and business. you can also find her at The Corporate Psychic, and at Essential Teams.
an AI experiment / art shop
I made this play-project / time travel art shop with my partner (that's our AI-generated bodies you see below, scrolling).
istanbul travel deck
I'm working on a series of illustrated cards for a travel deck of places in Istanbul. it'll be a modular, minimalist travel guide, a creative souvenir, and my momento to the city.
moody birthday weather
I drew this on my 32nd birthday, in november. this is how the bosphorus looked and felt.
in case you're missing summer
towards the end of the summer, I drew a series of illustrations to capture those moments -- not because I loved them (summer is my least favorite season), but because I knew that I'd miss them.
❤️ website-portals I built
some websites I built for clients
🗺️ guides:
sharing your work as an introverted artist
a very minimalist (social media, platform-free) recipe for people with an urge to hide-hoard their work (like me).
how i share my work as an introverted artist — kening zhu
a challenge which took me a very long time to solve
art + money: way of the artist-entrepreneur
the way I'm solving the seemingly impossible puzzle of making art + making money - from a big breakthrough I had last summer.
the way of the artist-entrepreneur — kening zhu
a mindset that changed everything in how I approach art + business as an artist — by aligning and inhabiting my whole creative self
9 years of personal process & practice
a post reflecting on (and deconstructing) my 9 years of being deep in the process:
my core 3 practices: wellbeing, art, and business — kening zhu
an big picture overview of my 3 core themes and daily practices, these last 8 years, and how everything fits together.
creative possibilities of a digital world
I'm currently writing a series on digital world-building. here's one of many guides.
digital world-building: a map of creative possibilities — kening zhu
an exploration of 6 types of things to create for your digital world.
coming soon: a podcast
a project that's about to either (a) explode from my "to birth" channel or (b) cause a lot of pain. here's some album art I made a few months ago for it.
podcast art: the botanical studies of internet magic — kening zhu
the beginning of something new
💌 guide.notes: weekly letters on the creative life
I've been writing a weekly-ish letter, called guide.notes - on the process of building a creative life on the internet. I'd be happy to write you there, resuming next Thursday.
you can sign up here:
guide.notes ~ letters on growing a creative life
ongoing guides, notes, & tools for nurturing the creative life -- wellbeing, world-building, digital ecosystems, rituals, workshops, courses, and more.
🪼
I'll end this month's digest here, my friends.
january 17, 2020, four years ago, I left after a decade in NYC, and traveled the world with a one way ticket. in some ways, I'm still moving.
here's sunrise from my window, this morning:
thank you so much for reading, and sharing a moment of your day with me.
what about you, what's on your mind these days?
what are you working on, thinking about, reading, exploring, or experimenting with?
write me back anytime, and let me know.
secretly,
kening
