Hi! It’s been a while, so a quick intro for new faces: I’m Renee—current design director at Hearth Display and forever dabbler in all things art and culture.
It’s been 5 months (oops) since my last letter on NYE. In case you were wondering, we did, indeed, eat 12 grapes under a table before our redeye. Life since then has been pretty intense…so much so that I took an unintentional hiatus from writing. But I woke up last week thinking I miss my life, which is an odd thing to feel.
So where have I been since the start of 2025? Around the world (Medellín, Taipei, Shanghai, Mexico City, Chicago). In the throes of apartment hunting and moving, which is not a trivial task when you’ve called the same place home for 6 years. Working a lot.
Drowning in life tasks is an incredibly unglamorous topic to discuss over drinks. It’s also not good writing fodder. Finding ways to mute the world is necessary when you live in a city buzzing with constant clamor. My brain has thus been operating in survival mode: tuning out any extraneous noise (including all things Substack, sorry) and leaving my phone on Do Not Disturb. I walked home from dinner last week and saw the Knicks were on again. Not because I’ve been following, but because the game was projected on the brick wall behind a restaurant just down my street. Even when I try to tune out, I’m automatically tuned in.
My mom used to remind me that my room was a reflection of my mind—usually when she wanted me to clean my room. I’ve never felt this truth so strongly as I do now living in a one-room studio. Everything is unsettled in here. There is visual proof of transition all around me as I write you from a little bistro table. My new AC is half unboxed in the corner. Book piles pushed neatly against a wall. I finally picked up a shoe rack after 6 weeks of grabbing my shoes out of the last cardboard box. Few things have a permanent home yet, so I can’t call this place a home with gusto yet. I’ve barely had time to truly settle in. When I return from Mexico, I empty out the clothes from my carry-on and leave it standing by my front door. Why bother putting it away if it’ll repacked for Chicago in a short week, repacked for Barcelona the week after?
I believe wholeheartedly that all good things take time and a lot of trial and error. Case in point: deciding on a new trusted coffee spot or perfecting my door-to-door run time to the train. Most of good friends have also moved recently, stripping yet another layer of familiarity. I feel like a freshman all over again as I face each new commute with slight uncertainty.
Before moving, I spent a whirlwind two weeks with family in Shanghai and Taipei (amidst the start of the tariff chaos). I was surprised at how familiar Shanghai felt, as it’s been many years since I’ve returned to its maze of subway exits and leafy streets in the French Concession. The city was a much-needed source of inspiration: wistfully historic and futuristic, a fascinating blend of East and West. And time just moves slower in Taiwan. I felt my nervous system felt at odds with the island greenery and humidity. When I landed back at JFK, I never succumbed to jet lag. Maybe out of luck, or maybe because my body knew there was too much I had to do in the coming weeks.
Stillness feels like a sin. I write that, obviously, as someone who is restless with ambition. But slowness has become the target of my envy these days. I crave the art of leisure this June: reading and writing with no hourly commitments in mind. Peppering my days with beautiful art and people.
Giving way to leisure, however, requires emptying my brain of trivial things. Over a long-overdue coffee this weekend, I lament with a peer about the AI tools that we’re all supposed to be using and how they’re meant to make us more efficient (is that not code for just doing more work?, she rolls her eyes). Is our world not spinning fast enough? Does it really matter if I can communicate effectively with a computer and forget how to talk to a stranger? When I’m running to drinks later that same day, I pause on the sidewalk to let an older man walking with a cane pass me by. He apologizes for his pace. I shake my head to reject the apology. Struck, suddenly and deeply, by the sadness that I might make someone feel like they’re moving too slow for the world around them.
Seconds later, I pass a girl with pink hair and briefly consider bleaching my hair again. The passing urge to do something on a whim amidst a season lacking much whimsy. When I’m at drinks, I miss a call from a dear friend who no longer lives here. I forgo my to-do list for the evening and call her back for a much-needed breath of fresh air. She reminds me that each season is temporary. Even if I have to know that simply by definition and not by feeling.
🪡 Building chores.world, a new slow fashion collective. Putting on my brand strategy and comms hat…figuring out a lot as we go! You can read more about its genesis in the founder Joy’s words:
🍨 Planning our next pengyou event for June 22nd…tickets always sell out (not a brag, just a fact), so you heard it here first. So far this year we’ve done some of our most ambitious events to date: a paper lamp workshop and designing-your-own tattoos (with temp tattoos as a takeaway).
👀 Eyeing so much home stuff. I’m taking my sweet time to furnish because of decision fatigue and a spendy spring. And with space constraints, I have to be super intentional with each addition! Right now I’m chewing on the big purchases: potentially a Sabai couch (POC women-owned, eco-friendly, made in the US) and likely a vintage teak credenza. And adding any fun additions to my “later” wishlist.
this girl somehow moved and unpacked everything in one day hahaha 🎧 Listening to Samia (sad park bench vibes) and my friend Sea Lemon’s new album Diving For A Prize (dreamy wave vibes) to usher in summer. Also, the All-American Rejects played in a barn 10 mins from my hometown so I’m recovering from not being there by listening to their throwbacks.
Thank you for reading! You can find me more frequently on IG. Do we want a Medellín/Shanghai mini guide or design op-ed next week? Love you, mean it! x
shanghai by renee pls
taipei mini guide
pls