Discover Your True Self 
Through Creative Expression


MULTIMEDIA
LOVE LETTER


Embrace love, intimacy, and connection
with a 9-week multi-sensory virtual creative retreat
designed for heart-led humans.


Fall 2024
11/3/2024 ~ 12/29/2024

Live sessions

Every Sunday
6pm-7:30pm ET

Asynchronous resources
Every Monday
 

led by Mengwen Cao 
assisted by Macy Castaneda Lee

Thanks everyone for your interest
Enrollment closed for this season 

Join  Waitlist for Next Season
 



You are here because...


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

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

  • 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’ve struggled with feeling seen and understood. You want to connect deeply with others who share your experience of navigating the feeling of being in bewtween

  • 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 the 
          Multimedia Love Letter Retreat?


          Multimedia Love Letter is a 9-week creative 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.

          Through creative prompts and somatic exercises, you will learn visual-thinking strategies to interpret images, practice the power of intentional gaze and deep listening to build intimate connections

          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 class 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?

          Join  Waitlist for Next Season








          MULTIMEDIA LOVE LETTER
           Creative Retreat 
          Upcoming *Free* Info Sessions



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


          10/20/2024  5pm-6:30pm ET


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


          10/27/2024  6pm-7:30pm ET


          Thank you for attending the live sessions!  

          Join  Waitlist for Next Season









          KIND WORDS FROM 
          PREVIOUS PARTICIPANTS





            “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

            “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



             
                “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

              “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 DOES IT COST? 


                Full Price: $1555


                  * Early bird discounts avilable. 


                        * We offer payment plans. 
                        * We offer 1 scholoarship per 10 registrants. 
                        We especially encourage QTBIPOC to apply. 

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