What people have written about their
experience of the project:

"I don't think we've ever had a piece in the window that has captured so many people.... They're amusing, they're upsetting... You are compelled to keep reading them." (Todd Bernard, Founder & Creative Director, Space, Portland, ME)

"...thank you for the opportunity to express the unthinkable... and then to know it... and let it go... it will always be part of me... but not all of me... knowledge and acceptance of oneself is the ultimate freedom that allows us to love and appreciate other people for who they are..." (Anonymous participant)

"what haunts... demonstrates how much people have in common and how common their secrets are. It is a snap shot of what makes us human and of the human condition." (Kathleen Bitetti, Curator and Director of Artists Foundation, and the Lillian Immig Gallery at Emmanuel College)

"Bigger impact than I ever would have thought. I came here one day, kind of lost not knowing what to expect, upset at the least, but the secrets were a definite eye opener. I wish I could have contributed but I come, read the secrets, and begin to see mine are much more trivial than I expect..." (Participant at Merrimack College)

"...it resonates with her audience." (Blue Greenberg, Art Critic and reviewer for The Herald-Sun, Durham, NC)

"Nothing is so dark as it may come to be perceived once it has seen the light of day." (Anonymous project observer)

"The most moving aspect of the (project) can't be pinpointed. The often shaky or clearly old-fashioned handwriting on so many of the notes, the long letter-style confession I couldn't finish reading and the calm neutrality of the booth's interior are equally unforgettable." (Alexandra O'Leary, arts writer for New Haven Advocate)

"These stories are riveting to read, telling stories of abortion, adoption, and affairs mixed with more universal confessions..." (Cate McQuaid, Art Critic and reviewer for The Boston Globe)

"... shows how powerful secrets can be, and what damage they are capable of visiting on the innocent." (Paul Parcellin, arts reviewer, Art New England)

"They are wholly private and personal, sometimes gut-wrenching and emotional, other times delightfully wicked. Many carry enormous guilt. Some are linked to deep wounds and long-standing pain. Others evoke a hidden pleasure or tantalizing tidbit from the past that has been locked away in the soul." (Sonya Vartabedian, arts writer, The Daily News (Newburyport, MA))

"They say that confession is good for the soul, a truism that... cannot be verified. But if the work of Cathy McLaurin is any indication, there's a will, perhaps a need, to confess, to free the soul of its vessel's little secrets. ...there have been plenty of secrets that are quietly illuminating, that, in their similarity, connect us as humans, those little things that tug at us, that privately nag." (J.C. Lockwood, arts writer, The Merrimack River Current (Merrimack Valley, MA))