{💌 this is: my artist digest for July. I also send Friday letters (resuming next week!) called guide.notes}
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dear friends,
I definitely fell off the map for a few months while traveling to China and the US, but I’ve returned now. I spent the last few weeks meandering my way back to center — through drawing mind maps, soaking in new ideas, and nerding out on human design.
Istanbul summer is sticky and unforgiving, but abundant in figs, plums, peaches, and dark, sweet cherries. every few weeks, there’s flashes of lightening at night, but no thunder.
this month, I’m sharing:
an interview on Off the Grid, with my dear friend Amelia
a new podcast episode in praise of process
a series of mind maps & polaroids from my mind
I hope your July is slow and sweet.
~
🎙️ episode 7 | the process is the way
this is my guiding principle 101: a devotion to process. I’ll unpack why I believe that process is the magic key to anything you want — in relation to art, business, money, and the self.
LISTEN ON APPLE | LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
the process is the way — kening zhu
to every outcome you desire
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the deep integration of art, business & friendship: off the grid podcast interview
I had a beautiful conversation with one of my oldest friends Amelia Hruby of Softer Sounds on her podcast, Off the Grid — a podcast about marketing and business without social media. we dive into a conversation about art & money, energy, human design, the creative practice, and the magical nature of the world wide web <3
the deep integration of art, business, and friendship: off the grid interview with amelia hruby — kening zhu
an interview on art, business, and world-building — with one of my closest friends.
✈️ TRAVEL LIFE DIGESTIONS
traveling is like breathing — except when I feel suffocated by too much air. sensory overload is a real thing. I anticipate it every time, and it still knocks me out. here’s some mind minds I drew to help me digest and process what I did:
making inner space
what I craved during travel
making inner space — kening zhu
the act of returning to your center is to make inner space
the tether of time: a mind map of china travels
deep encounters in china — with family, memory, and time
the tether of time: a mind map of china travels — kening zhu
on past, present, and future in my birth land
rewriting anxiety: an illustrated mind map of USA travels
the process of drawing is like telling a new story
rewriting anxiety: an illustrated mind map of USA travels — kening zhu
drawing as a process of rewriting the inner narrative
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🎞️ POLAROIDS OF MY MIND:
when I’m feeling alienated from my own psyche, my go-to practice is to observe it as its own metaphorical entity. here’s some snapshots:
my mind as a soggy sponge
washed ashore the cluttered beaches of my overpacked schedule
my mind as a soggy sponge — kening zhu
the state of feeling over-saturated
my mind as a carnivorous flower
which exists to consume and devour
my mind as a carnivorous flower — kening zhu
the warrior plant of my mind
my mind as the blue screen of death
to be stuck in endless head loops
my mind as the blue screen of death — kening zhu
always under virus attack
🌞 SUMMER DIARIES
summer always feels to me like an outdoor, open-air party I wasn’t invited to (or more accurately, don’t want to be at). last year I started to explore my dislike for summer via these visual diaries, and at the end of it, actually DID begin to appreciate summer more.
here’s a selection of my strong feelings about summer:
absolutely cannot handle: the pleasure-kill of crowded beaches
the pleasure-kill of crowded beaches — kening zhu
summer diaries no. 5
will barely tolerate: the feeling of interboob sweat
the feeling of interboob sweat — kening zhu
waterfall bodies
this redeems summer for me: the necessity of daily watermelon
a single day without watermelon is a wasted day — kening zhu
summer diaries — I pay myself in watermelon in order to endure this heat.
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🌸 INSPIRATION LOG
things that inspired me these last few months.
plant vs. zombies
usually I use 9 hour flights to do deep, reflective journaling work — but en route to NYC from Istanbul, I think I played this game for 4 hours straight, offline, in the dark. it’s the perfect balance of strategy + action + botanical sweetness.
papers, please
then, on my 9 hour flight back to Istanbul, I played this game for 4 hours straight. I never knew that paperwork/bureaucracy — when combined with the intrigue of multiple storylines, totalitarian regimes, emotionally invested accounting, and the pure motivation to survive — makes such exciting and addictive gameplay. this game is complex and deeply philosophical - definitely on my top 3 list of games, ever.
re-discovering how to be a projector (human design)
diving into my human design last year was possibly the thing that most radically changed my relationship to work, energy and business. this year, I’ve been hungry to go deeper.
a few resources I’ve enjoyed: (the first two are projector specific)
raising your projector standards - sam zager
how to wait when the world doesn’t - that projector life
mybodygraph foundational analysis at jovian archives
house on the webs - registration opening soon!
I first built house on the webs in 2022, as a 10 day website creation sprint. after a few iterations and a year of hibernation, I’m excited to finally reopen it this summer. sign up for guide.notes for more timely updates.
💌 guidenotes: weekly letters on the creative life
after a 2 month break, guide.notes will be resuming next week.
on most Friday mornings, I write a letter called guide.notes — on the process of building a creative life on the internet wild — with inspirations logs, fresh notes, and curations from 9 years of my archives.
I'd be happy to write you there.
You can sign up here.
❤️ thank you so much for reading. write me back, anytime.
kening
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📮 this is my monthly artist digest for july. get weekly letters here.
🍃 find me on my podcast: botanical studies of internet magic.
🪷 explore working with me: advising, mentorships, creation services.
💧 send me a gift. water my world.