💌 september: stars & sea
{💌 this is: my artist digest for September. I also send Friday letters (resuming next week) called guide.notes}
dear friends,
tonight I’m writing to you from a roadtrip through the southern Turkish coast. yesterday we were stuck in traffic on a country road with a herd of a hundred goats. today, we took a wrong path to a swimming spot, and ended up (unbeknownst to us) hiking a most difficult, rocky, and prickly part of the Lycian Way. I dream about hiking the entire trail (320 miles) one day - maybe next year, or maybe when I’m fifty.
the coastline along the Aegean and Mediterranean seas is filled with ancient ruins (Greek, Roman, and Lycian) - though not always well preserved or protected. last week I visited Temple of Artemis, then read a Google review, in Korean, describing it as “quiet and lonely.” four stars. somehow this felt perfectly descriptive.
on this trip, I sleep to stars and wake up to the sea, and dream of a day when I can sleep and wake everyday to stars and sea. I’m not sure why I spent the last fourteen years living in metropolitian cities — when a secluded sea village life actually seems to make me much happier.
this month, I’m sharing:
making a home on the internet (and deconstructing what makes up a digital world)
my business as a hammock that allows me to rest
the mermaid castle: imagining a digital memory palace for my inner child
sketchbook still life diaries of figs, grapes, monsteras & snakes
& more…
~
🚀 house on the webs - 15% off until this Friday, Oct 4th
house on the webs is my 7 day creative course for building a website world of your own. I’ve rebirthed it from the ground up as a deeply poetic, practical, & process-oriented step by step journey. I distill a decade’s worth of my energy and experience building on the webs — into this course.
I’ll be extending the 15% early bird (aka, night bird) discount to this friday. you can use the code MOONBIRD.
Explore the course introduction + Day 0, for free
incubating your digital world — kening zhu
a guided inquiry process
🗺️ GUIDES/NOTES
thinking out loud~
my business is a hammock i weave by hand
reflecting on how I desire my business to be a soft, flexible, supportive structure for rest & dreaming
my business is a hammock I weave by hand — kening zhu
a place to rest & feel supported to dream
making a home on the internet
how to inhabit yourself on the internet (aka, turn your brochure-like website into a real home where you live)
making a home on the internet — kening zhu
inhabiting your infinite creative self
the anatomy of a digital world
breaking down the structure of a digital world from the atmospheric to the concrete
the anatomy of a digital world — kening zhu
dissecting the website world into parts
imagining the mermaid castle
how I’m imagining a digital memory palace for my inner child
imagining the mermaid castle, part 1 — kening zhu
a digital memory palace for my childhood
🌸 CREATIONS & INSPIRATIONS
things I made recently~
two figs, a double portrait
i couldn’t resist
two figs, a double portrait — kening zhu
an irresistible urge to paint more figs
strings of grapes, a study
a study of round forms
strings of grapes, a study — kening zhu
completing a summer fruit spread
end of summer figs & plums
painting the last figs of the season
end of summer figs and plums — kening zhu
saying goodbye with a visual feast
monstera jungle snake study
a plant snake still life
monstera jungle snake study — kening zhu
real monstera, imagined snake
film diary: the double life of veronique (1990)
a most exquisite film that lingered with me
film diary: the double life of Véronique — kening zhu
a mystical kind of female solitude, a double-portrait
journey of three seas
photo archives of an epic roadtrip from 2 years ago
journey of three seas — kening zhu
a three week roadtrip, spanning an old land, ancient ruins, sleepy villages, lush mountains, and three seas
💌 guidenotes: weekly letters on the creative life
on most Friday mornings, I write a leisurely letter called guide.notes — on the process of building a creative life on the internet wild — with new guides, 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 for reading
sending you a bit of sky & sea from this part of the world — from our drive today. the night air is crisp and cool, but the sea is still very warm, like a hug.
I’m wishing you a most generative week,
🪼 kening
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📮 this is my artist digest for september. get weekly letters here.
🍃 find me on my podcast: botanical studies of internet magic
🏔️ explore my website world-building course: house on the webs
🪷 inquire about working with me: advising & creation services
💧 send me a gift. water my world