Little secrets online
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An ancient secret to unburden? A postcard, a stamp, and any private torment or personal shame can be confided anonymously to the world via an artist's website which has become a new hit of the Internet.
Launched two months ago as an art project, the website PostSecret.com has received already more than 200 edgy, graphic, witty and sad secrets, all submitted namelessly on simple postcards.
"I want to have sex with my therapist," said one, accompanied by a drawing of a couple on the psychiatrist's couch.
"My boyfriend and my family thought I quit smoking two years ago. I didn't (and still smoke)," said another, signed "Closet Smoker".
"I say I'm a vegetarian. But I eat meat on the sly!" said a third, with a sketch of a steak and steak knife as evidence.
The website was created by artist Frank Warren of Germantown, Maryland, just north of Washington. He launched the project by passing out postcards soliciting secrets at art shows. The result, Warren said, gave him a voyeur-like thrill.
"At the beginning of the project, it was fascinating to see the secrets that were arriving in my mailbox daily. Each new card offered a peek into a strangers most private moments," he said.
Many of the confessions are indeed very private and graphic, and come with artful drawings and collages.
One contributor admitted: "When I was young, I drilled a hole in my closet wall and peed in it because I was mad at my parents. The closet smelled for years. I blamed our cat."
Another, mailed from Australia, confided that she was still a virgin but dared not tell her friends.
"Some of the people mailing in secrets seem to be searching for absolution. They want to lighten their burden," Warren surmised.
At the same time, some cards offered proud proclamations of secrets.
"I really enjoy funerals," read one, with a heart penned on it.
"I made love at Artomatic," said another, referring to a Washington art festival.
One card had a torn-out newspaper television schedule with a picture of TV personality Paris Hilton. Inscribed next to it was: "While others pray at church, I bow my head and think about the TV programs I plan on watching."
Some secrets are deeply serious, forcing Warren to weigh publishing them on the website. Two nameless correspondents confessed to having possibly incited friends to kill themselves.
One recalled both having been molested as a child and of later molesting his own brother.
"This card needs a warning. It has more weight. I need to find a way to present that," Warren said.
The idea for the website came from Warren's own interest in people's private mysteries. "I always had a fascination for people's secrets. Maybe it was because I had some secrets I needed to express," he said.
"Two of the secrets are mine," he confessed, without saying which ones.
The key to the website's success is the postcard format, Warren said.
"There is something about taking that pencil, sending out that secret in the mail. The fact that people have to mail a postcard creates a filter.
"It really is one of the reasons so many of the secrets on my site are thoughtful," he said at a continuing show of the postcards in Washington's Anne C. Fisher gallery.
Moreover, as more people visit the website, the confessions breed new postcards. "When people go to the site, they start to recognize secrets similar to the one they are carrying, or to admit secrets to themselves."
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An ancient secret to unburden? A postcard, a stamp, and any private torment or personal shame can be confided anonymously to the world via an artist's website which has become a new hit of the Internet.
Launched two months ago as an art project, the website PostSecret.com has received already more than 200 edgy, graphic, witty and sad secrets, all submitted namelessly on simple postcards.
"I want to have sex with my therapist," said one, accompanied by a drawing of a couple on the psychiatrist's couch.
"My boyfriend and my family thought I quit smoking two years ago. I didn't (and still smoke)," said another, signed "Closet Smoker".
"I say I'm a vegetarian. But I eat meat on the sly!" said a third, with a sketch of a steak and steak knife as evidence.
The website was created by artist Frank Warren of Germantown, Maryland, just north of Washington. He launched the project by passing out postcards soliciting secrets at art shows. The result, Warren said, gave him a voyeur-like thrill.
"At the beginning of the project, it was fascinating to see the secrets that were arriving in my mailbox daily. Each new card offered a peek into a strangers most private moments," he said.
Many of the confessions are indeed very private and graphic, and come with artful drawings and collages.
One contributor admitted: "When I was young, I drilled a hole in my closet wall and peed in it because I was mad at my parents. The closet smelled for years. I blamed our cat."
Another, mailed from Australia, confided that she was still a virgin but dared not tell her friends.
"Some of the people mailing in secrets seem to be searching for absolution. They want to lighten their burden," Warren surmised.
At the same time, some cards offered proud proclamations of secrets.
"I really enjoy funerals," read one, with a heart penned on it.
"I made love at Artomatic," said another, referring to a Washington art festival.
One card had a torn-out newspaper television schedule with a picture of TV personality Paris Hilton. Inscribed next to it was: "While others pray at church, I bow my head and think about the TV programs I plan on watching."
Some secrets are deeply serious, forcing Warren to weigh publishing them on the website. Two nameless correspondents confessed to having possibly incited friends to kill themselves.
One recalled both having been molested as a child and of later molesting his own brother.
"This card needs a warning. It has more weight. I need to find a way to present that," Warren said.
The idea for the website came from Warren's own interest in people's private mysteries. "I always had a fascination for people's secrets. Maybe it was because I had some secrets I needed to express," he said.
"Two of the secrets are mine," he confessed, without saying which ones.
The key to the website's success is the postcard format, Warren said.
"There is something about taking that pencil, sending out that secret in the mail. The fact that people have to mail a postcard creates a filter.
"It really is one of the reasons so many of the secrets on my site are thoughtful," he said at a continuing show of the postcards in Washington's Anne C. Fisher gallery.
Moreover, as more people visit the website, the confessions breed new postcards. "When people go to the site, they start to recognize secrets similar to the one they are carrying, or to admit secrets to themselves."
