Found by Laura

In 2005, Laura Sullivan found her first interesting note on the floor of Woolworths at Carlingford Court. Spotting the bright orange sticky note on the floor, and intrigued by the scribble of handwriting on it, she picked it up.

It read, “BBQ Chicken, bread, milk, muffins…” and on the other side, “Andrew – drug and alcohol counsellor, 1st Feb”. She was immediately moved by the fact that she had peeked into a very personal side of someone’s life. How many people had walked past it? How many trolleys had ran over it? The thought of this intimate part of a person’s life being discarded on the ground fascinated her, so she put it in her pocket.

After 12 years of collecting over 400 notes across New York, Toronto, Melbourne,
Adelaide and Sydney, Laura decided it was time to share them with others. She says, “It’s my own community project. I’ve collected a snapshot of our community over the last twelve years”.

The Found By Laura project showcases everything from love notes, passive aggressive flat-mate letters, quirky shopping lists, to personal thoughts about one’s own emotional state, with each note an anonymous glimpse into a person’s life. Laura says, “They are beautiful, painful, funny, daring and encapsulate everything that we, as humans are.”

A documentarian at heart, Laura is hoping to track down some of the note writers, and hear the stories behind the discarded sticky notes, cue cards and scraps of paper she has collected over the years, using the hashtag, #HaveIFoundYours.