Discover Your True Self 
Through Creative Expression

MULTIMEDIA
LOVE LETTER


Coming back home to your essence
with a 9-week  
virtual creative somatic retreat
designed for heart-led humans.

Spring 2025
4/6/2025 ~ 6/1/2025

Live sessions
Every Sunday
6pm-7:30pm ET

Asynchronous resources
Every Monday
 

led by Mengwen Cao 
assisted by Macy Castaneda Lee

Enrollment open

Join Us

*50% off for the first 10 participants
promo code: FOUNDING_50OFF 




You are here because...


  • You want to reclaim your own energy and create a liberated future. 

  • You’ve felt blocked or stuck. You want to embody your creativity, feel it in your body, and use it as a tool for self-love and connection.

  • You’ve been holding back your stories, unsure how to express them fully. 

  • You crave a creative transformation. You know creativity is healing, but you’re not sure how to fully integrate it into your life. 

  • You’ve struggled with feeling seen and understood. You feel alone navigating the in-bewtween space. 

  • You’re longing for a softly strucutured space to play and create without the pressure of perfection.



      • You’re looking for new ways to express yourself that goes beyond words. Whether through photography, text, sound, video, or website building, you want to see what’s possible when you bring your whole self into your work.

      • You’re ready to dive deep into your mind, body and spirit and create from a place of raw authenticity. 

      • You might be BIPOC, queer, immigrant, neurodivergent, sensitive, or navigating other complexities of identity. You’re looking for a community that will hold space for your full expression—where every part of you is welcome.



        Imagine this...


      • In 9 weeks, you’ve created a multimedia website with images, text, audio or video — a personal project that embodies your journey of self-love and creative freedom. You can also use that to showcase your portfolio or re-brand your business website.

      • You feel deeply connected to yourself, your emotions, and your body, having integrated somatic practices into your daily life.

      • You’ve built intimate connections with a supportive community of like-minded creatives, feeling seen and celebrated in your authenticity.

      • You’re empowered to continue expressing your story through photography, video, sound, and writing, without fear of judgment.

      • You are proud of who you are. You start to live a life following “a love ethic”1, embracing “all the dimensions of love—care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge—in our everyday lives”.

      *citation: 1. bell hooks, <All about Love>. 








          What is Multimedia Love Letter Retreat?




          Multimedia Love Letter is a 9-week creative somatic retreat that helps you access deep self-love, cultivate authentic intimacy, and build embodied connections through multimedia storytelling & somatic coaching.

          We will slow down together, get in touch with our senses, return to our center, reflect on the relationship we have with ourselves and others with the goal of creating a multimedia “love letter” to share or keep as part of your personal archives.

          We will engage with a blend of photography, text, sound, video and storytelling to create a multimedia love letter using a website builder (no coding necessary). 

          This retreat will be personal; an open heart is required. This is not a technical class, but you will find yourself acquiring a variety of different skills along the way. 

          You will need a device that can record photos, videos and audio — anything from a smartphone to a camera to a recorder.


          Multimedia Love Letter Framework 

          Every week, we will explore each topic from this framework. 




          Would you like to join this journey of love?








          KIND WORDS FROM 
          PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS






           





            “It was exactly what I hoped it would be! A blend of spending time with myself (going deep), and also reinvigorating my creative practice in a playful way. I thought every class was very thoughtfully planned with the opening, somatic exercises, partner work, creative challenge etc. I always felt held & challenged simultaneously. And it was an incredible group of people. Very grateful to have participated!”
            - Jasmin



            “If you want to learn more about yourself, you should try this class before going to a psychologist.
            Believe me, a lot will change in your life.”

            - Zeynep Dildar Gürcan

            click here to view Zeynep’s project


            “Meng's workshop is the right one for the times we are living. Exploring all the digital tools and dig deeper in our emotions to tell a personal story.” 
            - Samuel Mustri





             
                “Challenging yet accessible class for anyone willing to grow as an artist and as a human being ! 

                Thank you Meng for your wise teaching and gentle eye on our works...

                You pushed me to try things I never imagined I could do. <3”
                -Lara Micheli
                click here to view Lara’s project

                “I feel as though this course has inspired me to heal within myself in various ways while also creating a meaningful dimension of work that others can relate to and feel a safe space within. I really am excited to continue with multi-media projects and how the form of it influences future work.“ 

                - Adriel Michelle


              “To know Meng, & participate in their offers, is to know what it is to practice love as an ethos of care. Meng’s capacity to show up with a generous open heart to share with folks makes their facilitation incomparable. Their ability to emphasize the importance of love, in all its forms, radiates from their heartland to shape the landscape of all the hearts they encounter. To be seen by Meng is a ritual of honoring yourself. Regardless of how Meng is distributing medicinal medicine by serving as your mirror (photography, somatic coaching, facilitating), their gift of presence shines through. Meng’s use of dropping casually gorgeous gemstones of knowledge will nestle into your heartland space as you share space with them. To participate in Meng’s offering is to be moved by a deep sense of embodiment between yourself, the human, & the non-human living things around you. After all, love is freedom and freedom is Meng.”

              - Kay Brown author of Assemblage: Baby’s Breath



              HOW MUCH IS YOUR INVESTMENT? 


                Full Price: $1555
                Discounted Price: $777
                *50% off for 
                the first 10 participants
                use code: FOUNDING_50OFF


                          * We offer payment plans. 
                          * We offer 1 scholoarship for QTBIPOC folks.

                          Submit your application through this google form
                          https://bit.ly/MMLscholarship


                          If you have any questions, contact: sunsetstudio.love@gmail.com








                            MULTIMEDIA LOVE LETTER
                            Creative Somatic Retreat 
                             Info Sessions


                            1. Embody Your Future Self:  
                            a somatic self-portrait workshop

                            3/16/2025 6pm-7:30pm ET
                            bit.ly/somaticportrait2025


                            watch replay

                            *available till 4/6/2025


                            2. Design Your Virtual Presence:
                            a somatic website visioning workshop

                            3/23/2025  6pm-7:30pm ET 
                            virtualpresence2025.eventbrite.com

                            watch replay

                            *available till 4/6/2025

                            3. Q&A Sessions + Alumni Sharing

                            3/30/2025   6pm-7:30pm ET
                            mmlalumni2025.eventbrite.com 







                            Meet The Artists and Facilitators 
                            Behind Multimedia Love Letter







                            Lead Facilitator :


                            Mengwen Cao (they/them) is a photographer, artist, educator and somatic coach creating multimedia portals for personal and collective transformation. 

                            Weaving their embodied experience as a Chinese queer diaspora nonbinary person into their spiritual and creative practices, they use care and tenderness to explore in-between spaces. 

                            They see photography as a vehicle for healing and a tool to visualize the future. As a facilitator, they are trained in somatic coaching and various healing practices.

                            Their projects have been featured on publications like Aperture, Vogue, i-D, The New York Times and NPR. They have participated in international exhibitions like BredaPhoto, Photoville, Jimei Arles, Lianzhou Foto Festival. 

                            Mengwen graduated from the New Media Narratives and Documentary Practice program at the International Center of Photography in 2017. They received NLGJA’s Excellence in Photojournalism Award in 2019. They were recognized by The Lit List in 2018, PDN 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2019, World Press Photo 6x6 Global Talent in 2020 and Art in America 20 Talent to Watch in 2023.

                            Previsouly, Mengwen has served as a board member of Authority Collective, championing space for diverse narratives and perspectives in the media industry.



                            @mengwencao  
                            mengwencao.com


                            Teaching Assistant:

                             

                            Macy Castañeda Lee(they/them) is a non-binary Filipino photographer, organizer, public speaker, & curator. They focus on advocating for psychology, mental health, social justice, and education in the work they do.


                            Passionate about human beings, identity, vulnerability, and the mind, Macy calls themselves a “student for life”, consistently challenging the relationship between our external world with our internal one. With an early exposure to students with mental exceptionalities such as autism & down syndrome, Macy advocates for creating a more kind & empathic world through multi-media storytelling & research. They study how factors such as cultural movements, generational trauma, & societal norms affect the inner workings of our mind. In turn, they hope to share how humans are active agents that turn those factors over to the next generation & how important it is for one to break stigma in order to create more sustainable futures.

                            They run and founded a Philippine based non-profit, Talang Dalisay alongside its special project based organization, Bayan Kinaadman. They are the head curator & organizer of Worlds Through Minds, which is a people funded photography gallery and photo publication house which takes place around the world. 


                            @macycastanedalee
                            mcastanedalee.com