looping transitions & sci-fi bodysuits
hello friends,
on friday I had my first spring picnic in the park with Luna — and I felt briefly enchanted and shaken out of my homebody/hermit inertia.
this week, winter seems to be repeating itself again, in a smaller variation, like a musical motif. this recursion makes me think about the nature of change — how we move in looping circles through the seasons of our lives; returning again, before every new departure. as if life is saying to us: now, are you ready for something different?
yesterday, on a restless monday, I made scallion pancakes for the nth time, using this recipe. when I was in high school, my mother used to make and pack them for me, cut neatly and layered with paper towels in tupperware containers.
I thought about how dough work, like creative work — is not something that can be rushed. I thought about food as a love language, as a way of hanging onto my birthland and culture by a thread. maybe, in a not-so-distant future, I’ll be making some chinese recipe food project, where I’ll start pulling on those threads.
this week, I’m clearing the psychic/mental decks to get ready to teach my creative systems course. last week I finally released a podcast episode (I’m very slow at editing), and in the last 36 hours, I made 5 visual pieces — mostly backlogged visual diaries — as if in a trance.
I’m sharing a few below…
🐦🔥 creative systems — starts Friday at 11AM EST
my new course is about reimagining supportive, adaptable structures for being in relationship to your creative work. it’ll be a deep excavation of your personal process, and guided experiments, supported in community with a small group.
the live course starts this Friday, March 21st and runs for 4 two-hour sessions, until April 11th, from 11AM-1PM EST over Zoom.
I’ll organize alternate time slots if you can’t make the primary session.
I probably won’t do another live run for a while, but I’ll be releasing this course as a self-paced offering later this spring. if you’d like the community/guided collaborative experience, you can sign up below…
systems as sci-fi bodysuits
I wrote this today — on how my ideal creative system is basically a magical technology that helps me be truly in my body — and, with my body, move through the (sometimes dark and overwhelming) wilderness of my inner terrain, with ease.
systems as sci-fi bodysuits — kening zhu
creating personalized technologies for energy efficiency
transcendence of a productivity addict
how my voyage through accomplishment addiction & productivity culture started as an ambitious teenager — and swang wild pendulum swings throughout my adulthood…
transcendence of a productivity addict — kening zhu
a story of my evolving relationship to productivity
writing my cafe dream piece
a visual diary of when I finished writing my 10,837 word cafe dream piece. this might be one of my favorites from my visual diary series — probably because it looks like it could become an animation. what happens next? I am asking myself this too.
writing my cafe dream piece — kening zhu
writing myself on fire
a web world born in love
a visual diary of valentine’s day, when I created the website-birth of otherworldly. I made cosmic hands here, which was an accident, but I do like the idea of imagining that this IS what we do, when creating websites as worlds.
a web world born in love — kening zhu
the feeling of birthing otherworldly
the star: creative essence as regenerative giving
from tarot work guides — what the star taught me about pouring forth the kind of creative work that replenishes my entire ecosystem
the star: creative essence as a regenerative giving — kening zhu
giving from creative source to the work that replenishes you
a moody creative’s guide to work overwhelm
I mention this on my last podcast episode — the moment when the pendulum swang back for me, and I wanted to move on from my free-flowing inconsistency and constant emotional overwhelm.
I’m not even sure if I agree with every single thing here (I wrote it 2 years ago), but it marked an important desire to find “inner stability” — a process that continued to evolving, nonstop, since then. (long story short, inner stability = dynamic movement).
a moody creative's guide to overwhelm in work — kening zhu
on growing a creative business as an emotionally-driven artist — dealing with moods and energy, creative procrastination, paralysis, inertia, constipation, and guilt.
put your tsunami in a jar
brief instructions to self, inspired by a conversation with K, early on in our relationship — in which he encouraged me to harness my emotions and use them as creative fuel, by starting with the practice of containment (my words, not his).
put your tsunami in a jar — kening zhu
put the snooze button on your storm
the feeling of being safe
“like being held by a small circle of moonlight - while walking through a dark, night landscape full of shadows” — my body recognized this feeling before my mind could accept it.
the feeling of being safe — kening zhu
the feeling of being with someone who makes you feel safe
🌱 what’s growing in my mind
perfectionism as protection — my perfectionism gets activated infrequently these days (but intensely) — with things that require meticulous detail (or appear to), or involving work projects where I feel out of control. lately I’ve been recognizing this as a self-defense mechanism stemming from childhood — perfectionism as a way to avoid failure and shame. shedding a light like this feels like the first step to something big, like finding a clue. maybe, for a murder mystery called “how we kill our creative spirits all the time, by accident”
astrology as work guide - I’ve been returning to my interest in astrology by way of the elements — in particular, thinking about how fire can help channel water. for me, how to balance the desire to hermit/hide (scorpio) — with alternating cycles of sharing/expressing (leo/aries/sag). in other words — the same questions, different lenses.
the pleasure of art making at night - after a late night drawing session yesterday, I remembered the delicious solitude that comes with making art at night. it’s a bittersweet taste — a cool, soothing melancholy that connects you to all that is fragile and real. it’s remembering that you were born alone, and will die alone. that this art is born from you, is for you, and is always yours.
opening a mystery school — I have zero interest in being a tarot reader, human design reader, astrologer, or anything of that sort in the esoteric arts — but I’m deeply interested in their study and application to the creative/business path, since all of these are about working with the nonmaterial, and connecting it to the material. the majority of what I see in this intersection feels underwhelmingly shallow, and I crave something methodical, substantive, and deep. I think about opening a mystery school, where I’ll sing up to be the first student.
🌻 what’s inspiring me lately
watched - spiderman: across the spider verse and into the spider verse this weekend and was so inspired by the animation styles and artful comic book aesthetic. I’m definitely sensing a new research project for me. also, did I mention that I’m a total sucker for multiverse stories...
songs on repeat this week - girl with one eye and queen of peace by florence and the machines. I’ve listened to this band before, but for whatever reason, it never hooked me the way it did this week. it’s like how, after 3 years of living in Turkey, I woke up last month and suddenly developed a ravenous hunger for olives. but, my song obsessions usually last a few weeks.
browsing: syllabus project, the open syllabus as form, including this “how to fall down a rabbit hole” syllabus by Alden Burke. thank you to my friend Laura Joyce and her gem-filled newsletter for this. the syllabus as a constructive creative form and artifact, in itself, is lingering on my mind — as I think about how it can serve not as a to-do list (thus a perpetuation of research/perfectionism/procrastination) but as a mycelial network connecting different forms, subjects, and possibilities.
☁️ what I’m dreaming about right now
I’m usually dreaming about ten different creative projects at the same time, but these days, I can feel the shape of a few of them emerging — like strangers walking close to me — close enough that I can just start to make out the shape of their bodies. (I’m nearsighted, so this takes a while…)
I’m most excited about… the clarifying of two major multi-form book projects that have been incubating for many years. making open syllabi for my writing/visual/web practices. a widget of moon phases. a chinese recipe diary. a dog blog for luna. and, a small explosion of zines.
but… this next month, my focus will be channeling my creativity and guidance into my creative systems course, and the small group of live participants who will join me.
if you’d like to be a part of it, I’ll be happy to see you — starting this Friday, 11AM EST.
this will be my last letter until april.
thank you for being here.
I’ll write to you again, in spring.
🍃 listen to my podcast: botanical studies of internet magic
🏔️ explore my courses: house on the webs | creative systems
🪷 inquire about advising sessions
🌔 visit otherworldly - a web alchemy studio
💧 send me a gift: water my world