Meet Marcela Biven and Madeline Park of ___less Journal in Highland Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcela Biven and Madeline Park.

Marcela and Madeline, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
___less journal was woven from friendship and the shared experience of losing our respective mothers. Marcela and I (Madeline) have faced, and continue to face, synonymous hardships. We found ourselves asking the same questions: How do we progress as twenty-something-women in the world without our mothers? What would it feel like if we had a community to support our experiences? How could we nurture and create space for something useful, something to push up against the limitations of grief clichés, and act as a companion for others on their grief journey? How could we build a non-threatening forum and foster a safe space to approach grief? How could we collectively, from many standpoints and different losses, forge a communal language for grief?

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We both come from artistic backgrounds: Marcela covers words and I cover imagery. Navigating business managing deadlines and outreach, along with finding financial support to match the scale of the project we would like to build has been challenging! It’s a new, exciting, also uncomfortable terrain for both of us. All recommendations and advice welcome!

Please tell us about ___less Journal.
___less is a space that speaks to grief’s many languages. It is a collection of experiences expressed through loneliness, understanding, and resilience. Our goal is to create a space where feeling “less” can cultivate something more. Our own journeys with death taught us how difficult it is to find words for grief. We both had private grieving journeys but wondered if there could be a gentle, non-intrusive way of connecting to others sooner; if there was a way to be shown the way forward without being told how to move on.

___less houses letters to the departed as examples of different grief languages. The idea and hope is to show not tell, as a way of unlocking creative ways to process loss. Like love languages, we aim to encourage different “forms” of connection: writing, photography, painting, and specific activities or crafts that engage departed folks. These activities or crafts range from learning a hobby, pinning locations on a map, learning to forge ___’s signature, or trying on ___’s clothes.

We know that talking about death, about grief, loss and loved ones that have departed is not easy. We hope to open up and create ways for those grieving to feel less alone. We aim to forge a community. And we aim to do so thoughtfully– representing all experiences, voices, persons and feelings, “good” and “bad.”

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Madeline: I’m a very sentimental observer, so this question holds quite a lot! My favorite memories from childhood bring me immense comfort in that I’m able to vividly remember my connection to the earth. I loved staring out the window on lengthy road trips while getting lost with my mom and younger sister (before google maps!). Everyday I’d climb the magnolia tree in my backyard and observe the world from its height. Wading through creeks and finding critters was a hobby of mine, and falling asleep at the beach on my mom’s freshly ocean-dipped skin was the perfect day’s end.

Marcela: I’ve been finding it harder and harder to pin down favorites (probably something to chalk up to getting older) but in response, love compiling lists of favorite things. A favorite weekend memory was going to the ocean, diving beneath the waves as they broke, knowing that at the end of the day, my mom and my nan would have grasshoppers-ice cream-milkshakes for dessert and Shirley Temple before bed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.less-journal.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/___lessjournal

Image Credit:
Selected Images Created and Provided By: Lily Sullivan, Patricia Lagmay, Stephen Sadoff, He-Myong Woo, Bevo Biven, Marcela Biven, Meredith Park and Madeline Park

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