Frank Warren appears to be a typical, soft-spoken family man from Maryland.

But on the internet, Warren, like a priest, accepts confessions. Hundreds of anonymous, artistically-rendered secrets are sent to him on postcards every day. He reads each one, carefully selecting and displaying a handful of them on his blog, PostSecret, every Sunday.

What was originally intended as a one-off art project has grown into not only a website boasting over a million hits a week but also four books compiling confessions by different themes: PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, My Secret, The Secret Lives of Men and Women, and A Lifetime of Secrets.

Frank Warren is bringing his art-therapy-voyeur show to the Texas Union Ballroom at UT this Thursday, at 7pm. The event is free, but you'll need to have a valid UT ID to pick up a ticket at the Union Building, Room 4.300.

Austinist caught up with Frank earlier this week for a quick interrogation, after the jump.

Frank Warren presents PostSecret
Thursday, Nov. 1st
Texas Union Ball Room
[info]

Photo from CrisisLink.org

Not being able to have more children. Having my daughter, Hailey.

What is some of the worst advice you have ever received? And best?

I avoided telling both my parents when I started soliciting secrets from strangers to avoid any bad advice. The best advice I can give is to avoid the bad.

Your house is on fire right now, your family is already safe and you have about thirty seconds to grab as much as you can in your arms before it is all lost to the flames. What do you grab?

Okay, my heart is actually beating faster from this question. I have a journal that I have written my thoughts in since high school. I think I would grab that. I added the last entry to that journal not long ago—it reads, "The children the world almost breaks become the adults most likely to change it."

This is Klosterman-inspired. One of two things must happen, a choice must be made. A friend, a close friend of yours is hiking. He's about to be attacked by a cougar. He'll survive the attack. This is certain. He may be horribly disfigured for life and might even lose a limb, or he might defeat the cougar quickly and with little or no injury to himself. With one word you can prevent this attack from ever happening. With your word the cougar will just fall over dead. Your friend is ensured safety but it will rain on you and only you for the rest of your life, where ever you go. It might be just a drizzle or an all out monsoon but it will always be only on you. What do you choose?

...I would shout, "fuck" and wait to see if that was the word.

Hmm...Nice. Now let's talk about PostSecret. What, to you, makes a "secret"?

I think a secret is a feeling, thought, fear, belief, hope, desire that you hide from others, or from yourself.

What is PostSecret for you?

It's a way to share our individual secrets that reveal our common humanity.

You have been doing this for a while now. Approximately how many postcards have you received?

Over 180,000 now.

You have several books out now, all are filled with these artful and anonymous secrets. They come as collections with different themes such as Secret Lives of Men and Women etc. but one criticism I have heard is that they are in fact all the same inside. What is it that really sets these books apart from each other?

I try to find a different perspective to view our secrets from with each collection. So the second book that contains secrets from young people will tell a different story than the new book, A Lifetime of Secrets, that arranges secrets from people from cradle to grave.

The internet has become this amazing vehicle for anonymous mass communication and your blog is a perfect example of this. Is this bringing us closer together as a generation or helping to further separate and isolate us?

I am hopeful about the new technologies that are emerging now. We can create new conversations with blogs and virtual communities that were not possible ten years ago. Artists and entrepreneurs will find new opportunities to share the extraordinary poetry, art and humor of our everyday lives in new extraordinary ways. Queue the next Spielberg.

[Laughs] Have you ever gotten into any sort of trouble or has any controversy been stirred up because of what you have posted on your site or published in your books? If so, what has happened as a result?

No. Not really. I once removed a postcard from the website because a girl was concerned that her parents had identified her handwriting.

How far away have you received postcards from?

Hong Kong, Afghanistan, New Zealand.

What is the darkest secret you have ever received?

"I pee in the shower."

What kind of art were you involved in before PostSecret and how did you conceive of this project?

My last project before PostSecret was a message in a bottle.

It seems that the are these melancholic themes that run through the secrets. They are ones of low self-esteem, depression, regret, self-hatred and so on. Almost all have some generally negative connotations. Do you agree? What universal truths, if any, do you see revealed is the number of secrets revealed to you grows?

I think that it is understandable that our secrets are heavy. When we have good news about ourselves we pick up the phone. One paradox I have learned is that for many people seeing that so many others carry burdens, too, allows them to find a sense of solace and empathy.

Do you have any postcard that you feel especially close to, a secret that has touched you more, stuck with you longer, anything like that?

"I steal small things from my friends to keep memories of how much I love them."

I am sure you saw this coming a mile a way, but what is your biggest secret?

I tried to send a postcard to my father last week, and I realized I do not know exactly how much it costs to send a postcard.

With respect to PostSecret, what is the lesson here? What does this show people?

That we all have a secret that would break your heart if you knew what it was, and if we could remember that, the world would be a more compassionate and maybe peaceful place.