Back in 2005, Laura Sullivan found a sticky note on the floor of a Sydney Woolworths. On the note was written: "BBQ chicken, mango, chestnuts, muffins, rice...". On the other side it read: "Andrew - appt drug and alcohol counselling, 1st Feb".
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She kept the note and from that moment on, she held on to every note she found. Today she has over 400 notes – some of which will be on show this month at her own exhibition in Alexandria, Found By Laura.
Sullivan now refers to her note collecting as a "life project", keeping her finds in ziplock bags along with details of when and where she found that particular piece of paper.
"I keep almost everything," she told BuzzFeed. "I’ve definitely thrown out notes early on that I regretted so I’ve refined how I do things. I cull the obvious crap, but keep more than I used to because you never know what others may see in a note."
With notes from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Toronto, and New York, each of the notes included in Sullivan's exhibition is unique.
"There was definitely a solidifying moment when I was living in NYC. Given the dense population, finding got interesting very fast. I looked back at the stack I’d gathered and it hit me: This is real. This is something."
As interest in her collection grows, Sullivan hopes to reconnect some of the notes with their original owners using the hashtag #HaveIFoundYours.
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If you've ever lost a scrap of paper, it's worth checking out.
