Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop Fest, 1967.

Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire at Monterey Pop Fest, 1967.

I used to live in a room full of mirrors; all I could see was me. I take my spirit and I crash my mirrors, now the whole world is here for me to see.
-Jimi Hendrix

 
Three years ago today, Facebook sent me a ‘cease and desist’ type of warning telling me that I was on probation because I was posting too many outside links on my personal page; minutes after, Seymour was born.

At the time, people were mostly posting status updates and photos on Facebook, but the site had just launched their professional pages and were ‘encouraging’ people like me not to do business on their personal pages anymore.

Trouble was: I wasn’t ‘doing business’. Having been surrounded by creatives of all kinds throughout my life, I was simply giving them shout-outs and enthusiastically sharing their latest projects. But, it got me thinking: could my passion somehow become my profession?

I impulsively created a new ‘business’ page.  ‘PAGE NAME’ …the cursor pulsed insistently. Indeed, what would I call it?  Immediately, as if whispered, my father’s name popped into my head. His lifelong nickname had been Sy, but his given name was Seymour. I typed it in and hit the return key. Little did I know how profoundly that innocent gesture would change my life.

In the three years since, Seymour has become a sort of magical loom upon which I have endeavored to weave together all my interests, experiences and explorations, in an effort to illuminate both myself and you. To inspire us to protect our minds, plumb our depths and light our sparks. An intuitively evolving project built with the often ineffable bricks that are imagination and creativity, it has grown, contracted, shifted course numerous times, been rewarding and frustrating, scary and exhilarating and most surprisingly… enduring.

As we celebrate this third birthday, Seymour’s future is bright. We will open an interactive public space in Paris by the end of 2014 and look forward to growing in all sorts of unexpected directions in the coming years.

I raise a glass to you all, each reader, each contributor, each friend:

You are Seymour and Seymour is you.

Happy Birthday to us!

Long life to us all.

 

Melissa Unger

Founder, Seymour Projects

ps: If you would like to give Seymour a birthday present, please click HERE.

 

Published: January 28th, 2014



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