Carina novel, HASC tape, junk journals: what I would have missed if I died in 2012 like I wanted, My Dear Future little ones: what my heart daydreams for you, what I adore about myself, details from my daydreams, experimental short story zine, artist book, Twine game, tiny canvas, hotel residency, Bitsy, Lost Horizons Night Market truck, Power Point to the People slideshow, vintage rolodex art, a container work, flyer holder project, abandonedb2dbc marginalia, P. O. box open call, typewriter busker, immersive emotional emporium, Books I Held packages, Kleroteria zine, mail-art for the Dream Archive, stunning self-portrait series, tiny artwork for teng teng frame necklace, sought pairs for green bird book locket, inklewriter, toy pose photos, stickes, Oulipan Experiments, journal with me, memento mori, gentle graffiti, extravagant lyric essay, audio walk on special app, toy capsule vending machine surprises, diorama, old school zine, spreadsheet site, online shop, makeover vintage oil painting, Upcycle Pantone color tint selector library of color, warped watercolor sketchbook, (Kapwa) tarot ritual, SAT blackout book, Book of Suns Finding Peace Collage Book, poetry comics notebook, Syllabus by Lynda Barry, altar, bookshelf of completed notebooks & sketchbooks, my publications only shelf, Before I Die wall wish, cigar box stories exhibition, Developing in a dark lab (darkroom), ekphrasis, full gratitude journal, garbage planner, Show and Tall Tale series, curate exhibition, residency, multi-layered risograph zine, decorated pinhole camera, Bicoastal zine, tiny book, comic book, interactive book, @wordsiheld ❤️
I definitely overextend myself but I can’t help having so many passions hehe. I do wanna try to be more diligent and focus on one project at a time. It will only improve the work and I won’t be so stressed and scatter-brained. I have a number of goals I want to do, some of which I’ve already shared on social media so I won’t go into them. This post will be dedicated to daydreaming what I long to do in the near and distant future, if I’m lucky enough to see it. To be reviewed periodically when I’m bored or when I wanna add another idea:
1. The first I’ll share is my non-medication prescription I would give myself which is shown below. It’s for the Anonymous Was the Data exhibit coming this September to Princeton University. Four tiny junk journals–Why I love myself, What I would have missed if I died in 2012 like I wanted, Details from my daydreams, & My Dear Future little ones: what my heart daydreams for you–which will reside in a large prescription bottle for attendees to extract and read. I’ve been working on them on and off for a while and this show by Chanika Svetvilas gave me a great opportunity to finally finish & share them. I did an interview with Svetvilas and it felt so great to claim my story and mental health difference. A term I learned from her. She was so kind & gracious and gave me as much time as I needed to speak even when we went over. I’m excited to fill them up and see everyone else’s prescriptions in the Fall. I’ll mail them out by Mid-July. I’m blushing just thinking about them hehe. https://chanikasvetvilas.com/anonymous-was-the-data
2. Create a Twine game and upload it to my website. I have a guide made for kids and helpful tutorials from the Narrative Constellations course so I know I can make something spiffy hehe. I just need a solid concept. https://twinery.org/
3. I will also have Bitsy game poem class videos. It looks like a great tool and I wanna make a sprite hehe. https://bitsy.org/
4. Submit to a collaborative zine by scrappybilly on favorite movies, and I wanna create something for Amelie. I’m not sure what though, it’d be fun to make art. I’ll need to rewatch it yay hehe. End of July deadline.
5. Two Cats Gallery in San Diego is holding an open call for tiny art running through July and part of August, postmark date August 5th. They’re giving away mini canvases so DM them on IG @twocatsgallery to see if they have any more available. Mine came in already. It will be a watercolor painting, but I don’t know what the subject will be. I’ll figure it out. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11TL-XZwT4bEM5pSnTYe-6DSVNWlA3yNgNccHgE64Qb0/edit
6. I’ll create a hotel residency where I book an artsy stay in a city I never stepped foot in and craft a project completely beginning and ending there. I’ll spend days exploring and the late nights writing and making. I won’t even know what kind of medium it will be before I get there, just bring all the supplies hehe. Making sure to request a stack of the motel stationery to fill up for notes and additions.
7. Make a risograph zine but not a minizine. A fairly thick one with a minimum of three color layers. Colorful and more special than if it was printed ink jet or digital print. Maybe a comic, photos, or something illustrative.
8. Fill up a notebook with just poetry comics whether it’s out of scraps or ink or watercolors, etc. They can be more than a page long and in fact, encouraged. Keep experimenting further and further and find new ways to express myself.
9. I’m a patron of Rocky Rivera’s Patreon and she’s a very gifted Filipina rapper and journalist. She’s holding a manifestation workshop right now but I haven’t been keeping up or even begin really. When I find a month with enough breathing room, I’d like to do all four weeks properly and see what transpires. https://www.patreon.com/rockyrivera
10. Finally use the voice tape recorder I bought from Hello America Stereo Cassette and record..something hehe. Maybe letters to my future children or future self. A recap of my day. I love the idea of having it on physical tapes I can hold and rewind and forward. https://helloamerica.bandcamp.com/merch/cassette-player-super-set
11. At the Lost Horizons Night Market, I drive a box truck customized into an immersive experience that’s lovely and sweet. The Night Market happens when people rent box trucks to create different experiences like a dirty talk show, altar to the god of rock, bowling alley, clown school, all late at night in an area far from the main roads and public transportation stops. It’s hosted by Shadow Traffic which is a wonderful NYC org that does DIY events that are usually free for the public. It’d be wonderful if I had the confidence to drive a UHaul and decorate and fill it up with neat stuff that visitors enjoy. I’d love for /E\’s help and friends too if they wish. I want something akin to light and gentleness. https://shadowtraffic.org/portfolio-item/lost-horizon-night-market-2023/
12. Conjure a really neat google slideshow for Power Point to the People in NYC that’s held every other Wednesday. You present a slideshow and it could be a story or comedy, something engaging. I love public speaking when it means a lot to me and I’m more than willing to leave work early just to do this hehe. I don’t know what the topic would be but it’ll come to me like always https://bit.ly/slidesmic
13. Sew a cute dress with pockets hehe. BIG ones! Do it at Bobinage NY in Brooklyn located in the Japan Village during a class. While we’re at it, a cool backpack or knapsack or purse, something handy hehe. It’d be nice to feel proud wearing something I handmade https://www.bobinage-ny.com/classes
14. Submit to Mission 12: Philatelic Collage for the Special Agent Collage Collective which I”m a proud member of hehe. You make a collage on a postage stamp but only within its boundaries. Such a fun challenge~! I’ve collected a bunch of stamps but I think I’ll pick a boring one to spruce it up. I wanna make it surreal and goofy hehe. Due July 1st.
15. Upcycle a vintage rolodex which rotates contact cards and make art on each one. Somehow the works must link together but be a complete circle. I wanna decorate the rolodex itself too, maybe it should have a theme.
16. Install a flyer holder on a telephone pole, that you have to lift the little roof to extract papers. Decorate it and every week or fortnight put in a new stash of zines, flyers, ephemera, goodies, etc. for free. Each one extremely different from the last, perhaps making a series.
17. Rent a P.O. Box and announce a mail art call where all the submissions, provided they aren’t evil, get collected into a zine, website, and an exhibit. Something fun and particular, but simple enough for anyone to do. The mail art call will last at least a year and I post them on social media periodically.
18. Get a typewriter and make an old school zine with xerox and collage backgrounds and cut outs. Have fun with it and transform it into thick city haha.
19. /E\ said I would make an Immersive Emotional Emporium LMAO… he ain’t wrong though, I would love to use that title haha. I don’t know what, definitely an immersive experience, most likely tender and overwhelming haha. I’ll figure it out lol
20. Have a vivid dream I depict on a postcard for the dream archive mail-art exhibit run by Vanessa Touzloukof in Greece. Up to two, submit by August 20th.
21. Take a selfie, whether it’s through my android, instant camera, one time use experimental camera, toy camera, photo booth, etc. Use as many methods as possible. Do not edit it or use filters. Get a physical print, limiting to one, and use it as the impetus for a larger artwork where I develop it into something striking and beautiful. The goal is to feel in awe of myself when I look at it as I have trouble believing I’m beautiful or even pretty. I think this will let me see what other people keep reminding me.
22. I bought a little charm that has a green ceramic bird attached to a book locket. I can place two photos or tiny prints inside, just need to trim & fun tack them. I’m attaching it to my One More Daydream goals notebook. I would love to continuously update it with something that conjures what I want next. Even if I have a vague idea, I can make a symbol or a color I wish for. Or an affirmation or a single word. Something that helps me focus and centers me to flow to what I love properly hehe.
23. Use Inklewriter to make a Choose Your Own Adventure style story. Upload to my website. Get elaborate and off the wall; make it surreal yet grounded with vulnerability. https://www.inklewriter.com/
24. Take photos of a cute and expressive figurine or toy, maybe one that /E\ makes, in strange and inventive places. Always different backgrounds and in striking poses.
25. Create stickers–illustrations, sentences, phrases, collages. Make enough to gift loved ones and strangers. Place stacks in random or beloved locations.
26. Take Strange Meetings: Oulipian Experiments in Generative Writing:with Writer Gabriela Denise Frank, Begins July 9 at Morbid Anatomy, online. Try out intriguing writing styles and constraints. Submit to literary magazines and get a publication credit. Hopefully print. I really hope I can take this class, it looks so cool. https://www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/strange-meetings-oulipian-experiments-in-generative-writing-a-6-week-online-course-with-writer-gabriela-denise-frank-beginning-july-9
27. Run a bookstore, The Open Book, in Wigtown, UK. The flat is above a bookshop and you spend a week curating the bookshelves and selling. It’d be so much fun and I would bring my zines, books, and anthologies I’m in, and hopefully handsell a book I wrote. Host a cute event too hehe https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7908227?source_impression_id=p3_1687812370_YNhtoPHjhHzeswg3
28. Use a sewing machine to make a collage of paper scraps and add to my goals notebook, diary, and junk journals. Include it in strangers’ packages and friends’ as well.
29. Shoot a Journal with Me video where I show how I fill out a junk journal and use ephemera. Tripod, voiceover, and maybe timelapse. Post it on Youtube and Instagram and experiment.
30. Attend the Make Your Own Memento Mori with Art, History and the Imagination with Morbid Anatomy Founder Joanna Ebestein. All on zoom, I’ve always fantasized creating my own and with this class I can build a better relationship with Death. https://www.morbidanatomy.org/classes/make-your-own-memento-mori-befriending-death-with-art-history-and-the-imagination-with-morbid-anatomy-founder-joanna-ebenstein-beginning-jan-19
31. Scrawl graffiti, but not permanently. Use chalk or window marker so it can be washed away easily. Come up with pithy and sincere words. Maybe a cute doodle. Not necessarily combined hehe, but definitely sweet, like me! lol
32. Use my lomo instant square camera to take photos that tell a fictional story with a magical element embedded. The photos can capture a hint of what’s going on, or even better, its format is crucial to the tale.
33. Also make a lyric essay that’s deeply experimental and involves maybe photos, footnotes, sections, headings, etc. Something meaningful and surprising to write. And hopefully rewarding on future rereadings.
34. Host and curate the third Fortune Cookie Reading, with a majority new readers. I definitely want /E\ to perform. Basically, I let my readers choose a fortune cookie slip that they use as the basis of their reading. Whether it’s a comic, essay, meditation, monologue, immersive experience, song, etc. They can use a phrase, a number, word, the whole thing, subvert it, just as long as we see the connection. It’s always fun to put together and I wanna hire another graphic designer for the poster and flyers. Maybe host it in NJ this time around.
35. Create an audio walk through an app that allows you to read at locations along with photos and graphics. Let the route tell the story and work well together. Make it imaginative and stirring and fictional. Repeat listens and the changing landscape allow discovery of new facets and elements.
36. Fill up a sketchbook with watercolors. Moods, landscapes, detailed life studies, poetry embedded, etc. Use up my Beampaints and have a lot of fun growing and trying new techniques and styles. www.beampaints.com
37. Load a toy capsule vending machine with different, wide ranging objects: origami with hidden poetry, tiny junk journals, page corner bookmarks, little mascots, etc. Set it at 50 cents each and install it somewhere public and mundane.
38. Craft a diorama in a shoebox or cigar box. A surreal scene with hidden surprises. Make another in the outside world in public, integrating with the location, like a figurine swimming in a puddle. Make a tiny art show on a fence or brick wall, on the ground, with tiny figures studying the works. Make a white bench and mini plaques hehe.
39. With my own vintage typewriter, I write flash fiction and poems for strangers on the street or at a festival. All driven by their prompts. I do this for cash, pretty rocks, yummy treats, books, written works, etc. Whatever feels reasonable at the moment.
40. Watch the Spreadsheets Sites tutorial and make use of the inspiration and resources to create a website using google spreadsheets. I missed out on the class but they graciously put it up on youtube and a website so folks can learn. It looks like fun and easy to learn, definitely will upgrade my personal site. https://ambient.institute/i/sheets/
41. Create an online shop where I sell junk journals, revive your joy kits, zines, books, immersive experiences, etc. A place where folks can buy my offerings and hopefully have a lot of fun and sweetness.
42. A thick zine or book art where it has pop ups, envelopes, pockets, tip-ins, flip reveals, etc. each spread offering something novel to interact with and not just words and printed pictures on the pages.
43. Commit marginalia in different inks & colors on books I’m reading I want to give away in abandonedB2DBC packages. Add doodles, diagrams, stickers, highlights, etc. Insert photos, bookmarks, ephemera relevant to what’s exactly on that page. Ask questions, provide tangents, reveal what you discovered in the process of it all. Document it on @abandonedb2dbc Instagram and consistently update. Ensure the rest of the gift fits the work well and has a theme. Write notes on the pages of developing the art project so they can see the thread blooming. Add what’s happening in your life that feels relevant to the book, some background too. Overall, create a living diary that the stranger can witness til its end. Abandon it at a location that makes perfect sense.
The first book I would use is the below “To Walk Alone in the Crowd” by Antonio Muńoz Molina. It’s a memoir and a novel and so much more on walking in the city. I loved reading it but had to return it to the library before I could finish. I got my own copy recently and I’m so excited to fill it up!
44. Purchase an oil or watercolor painting at a thrift shop or flea market. More old fashioned and larger, the better. Especially if it has a fancy frame. Decorate it with just enough of the original popping up and make it weird hehe. Perhaps create a vision board out of another artwork with hints of the original again.
45. Make a minimum 24 page zine or book art, as well as a mini-zine for the SunScream Zine exchange. Due August 26th and 12th, and I’ll receive 12 and 20 back, respectively. It’d be cool if I can make them both stand alone as well as work well together, but not all contributors are guaranteed to get the duo so maybe not. /E\ suggested making a short story and I think it’d be a lot of fun! I can incorporate photos, footnotes, pop ups, etc. I really want to experiment and push myself. The open call is currently closed but you can check out more details here. https://www.veronicaleto.com/sunscream
46. I found this Pantone Color Tint Selector binder in a free little library in Brooklyn like two years ago. 106 pages of a library of color hehe. I don’t know what to do with it though, it’s intimidating to be honest. 36 years old and still lovely to look at. I’ll figure something out
And that’s my list hehe. Thanks for making it this far! I plan on hyperlinking this page whenever I decide to post about any of these projects. It’ll be a thorough table of contents hehe. Enjoy and let me know if you decide to do any of them please. Have a lovely day ahead!
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