ABOUT HARLEY CLAES
(author, artist, and curator of this website)

who is harley claes?

I am a multidisciplinary writer, world-builder, renaissance soul, and antiquarian. I've penned numerous poetry collections, a handful of fiction novels, and released music across a multitude of genres. I also run a small business where I craft and sell dried flower terrariums, html website and canva templates, and more.

Above anything else, I am a writer first and foremost. I run a blog that acts as an ecosystem of creative ideas, personal mythologies, and explorations of inner worlds- A digital garden mixed with a dreamscape memory palace- where philosophical fragments, creative field notes, surreal poetry, & junk journal entries coexist. My writing voice is esoteric, surreal, and philosophical- inspired by antiquity and self-invention.

what is my philosophy?

Creation to me is almost a spiritual process, artistic rebellion is a way of life, and beauty — true raw and uncensored beauty– is a revolutionary act. I aim to spark a new creative renaissance influenced by old literature, fashion, and art - a counterculture where creative projects are full of depth again. I have always envisioned an ambitious generation of artists who build temples out of their passions, who blend the sacred with the profane, and who use aesthetics not as masks but as confessionals.

Visually, retro kitsch, grungey antique, taboo themes, and pastel surrealism haunt my work. I resonate with the dreamers who refuse the ordinary, the counterculture icons who dare to rebel against the algorithm and create something undoubtedly unique. I am haunted by the old school existentialists found in smoky cafés, by vintage manifestos and retro fashion, and the secret lives of forgotten revolutionaries. I channel the heartbeat of subcultures long gone, filling endless notebooks with my literary ravings and collages, forever producing relics influenced by past eras. Every book, collage, zine, and project I make is a rebellion against modern day cultural amnesia.

✩˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Creative Journals–
Notes from the interior: musings, studies, and my ritual practices.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Visual Artwork–
Surreal and Kitsch illustrations. Each piece is a portal, a gateway to another imaginary lands reminiscent of my inner world.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Handmade and Digital Collages–
Cut-ups with a grunge, anachronistic, or often unnerving aesthetic, an assemblage of fragments with disembodied poetry that is often philosophical or surreal.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Poetry–
Excerpts of my poetic ruminations shaped by longing, visionary observations, and inner excavations.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Junk Journals–
Chaotic archives stitched from paper scraps, ephemera, and private rituals.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Dried flower terrariums–
Dried blossoms and preserved worlds. Terrariums, pressed flowers, and herbal amulets — tiny green altars that encapsulate the essence of real nature bouquets.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Small Business Creations–
Objects designed with rarity, care and intention- created to sell as a unique offering.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Zines–
Portable worlds carrying visuals, poetry, essays, art, and fragments meant to inspire the reader.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Novels–
Long-form visionary and fictional lands where my characters, worlds and ideas slowly become entangled. These stories are cities of my various interior landscapes.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Poetry Collections–
Constellations of poems echoing across themes of identity, transformation, and desire. Each collection has its own emotional climate, capturing a moment in time.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Designed Clothing–
Patterned aesthetics printed onto fabric meant for daily life. These garments are statement pieces meant to stand out.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Music–
Genre-bending, but often shoegaze-soul inspired, I capsule various moods and memories through this medium. Each album is an emotional environment meant to be lingered in.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Works in Progress–
Glimpses of the novels, zines, and other projects of mine that are still unfolding —drafts, concept pages, and the flicker of my ideas that are not yet complete.