100 Love Notes and The #100 Love Notes Project

Flying socks, Spanish anchovies, origami butterflies, and tarot cards comprise just a small part of the collaborative efforts that produced 100 Love Notes, the book. Here, author Hyong Yi and the 17 artists he commissioned to illustrate his 100 three-line poems share some of the insights behind their work. Together, they have illuminated a story that captured the hearts of people around the world, giving it even greater meaning and purpose.

The initial version of Hyong Yi’s 100 Love Notes launched on the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina on November 21, 2015. To honor his wife, Catherine Zanga, on the one-year anniversary of her death from ovarian cancer, Hyong and his two young children gave strangers 100 handwritten love notes, notes that chronicled Hyong and Catherine’s life together, from their first meeting, to dating, marriage, children, and her death, which came far too soon.

NBC and ABC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and the The Today Show covered the story. So did Buzzfeed, Upworthy, Someecards, Collective Evolution, Yahoo News, Blessings.com, and many other online news sources. Author Hyong Yi has been interviewed by Mike Collins of WFAE’s Charlotte Talks, has been a guest on WCNC’s Charlotte Today , and The Hallmark Channel. Media around the world—the Toronto Star, Sky News (U.K.), Yahoo Canada, Huffington Post UK, Global News Canada, KSN.com, News India, Korean Evening News, UTBC (South Korea), Suff.co.nz, Dailylife (Australia)—picked up the story as well.

Surprised by the magnitude of interest, Yi realized that the notes had greater purpose, and he commissioned 17 artists to illustrate his three-line poems. The resulting art runs the gamut from watercolor, to pen and ink, mosaic, and collage; from traditional paintings to digital compositions.

Avery Caswell was a featured artist in Hyong Yi’s 100 Love Notes and The #100 Love Notes Project