My wife Jennifer (who I really should have write the beginning of this post, at least) returned this week from a few days’ vacation in Baltimore, with our son Ian. Aside from the delicious blue crabs, her life-changing hot & spicy chocolate gelato, and the totally satisfying U2 Imax movie, she was most vocal about their time at the American Visionary Museum, which sadly I have only second-hand experience with.
My first-hand experience though is with a book she brought home for me, related to some very compelling work installed at the AVM. The book was published in 2005, and there have been a few ‘sequels’ but it was all new to me. The book is PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren. I’m taking my time perusing and savoring it.
An earlier post of mine showcased a book (and related community) by editors at Smith Magazine whose concept of 6-word memoirs gave rise to poetic and insightful exploration of life within very tight constraints. Frank Warren’s PostSecret project is also restrictive, yet by encouraging the added visual dimension his scheme allows more room for expression and is arguably, ultimately, more accessible than words only.
In a nutshell, Mr. Warren invites you to confess your secret(s) in words and pictures – anonymously – in the form of a postcard, slap on a stamp and mail your intimate creation to him. Many of the thousands he’s collected, and is still collecting – are breathtakingly beautiful in their composition, their craft and their vulnerability. I’m not sure if some are enhanced by the author or not (I sometimes see stylistic similarities across the collection) but it’s the [assumedly] therapeutic, confessional nature of the exercise that is so appealing. I ‘m almost inspired to share a dirty little secret or two with the world – unattributed to me of course. You can see some examples from the constant stream at the PostSecret and the PostSecret community websites.
Again, I’ve started to write before I’ve finished my research, and continue to discover (years late) related information and activity on the web. There’s a pretty healthy PostSecret community out there and also video confessionals, seen at (among other places) the community web site above, are growing in popularity. It’s good to stumble across online video that strives to illuminate the human experience and not just distract us from it.