About Sagen
No matter who you are… your age, where you’re from, your background, what you look like, or your perspective on life…
Everyone has incredibly unique stories to tell that virtually any other human being on earth can somehow relate to, or at least learn something from.
Powerful stories, when told well, can motivate you to do good, inspire you to take significant action, help you feel become more empathetic, build healthier relationships, and even sometimes completely shift your perspective on life. Even tragic stories can help us learn something that will allow us to grow and evolve into better human beings.
From birth to death, our lives are filled with some beautiful moments that blossom into memorable stories that will be engrained into this earthly timeline forever.
We place so much personal meaning on these moments in life… relationships, places, projects, objects - anything - because of the stories people tell us and ESPECIALLY the stories we often tell ourselves… the meanings we place on everything in our lives define who we are and how we view the world in our mind.
It’s crazy to realize that just one story can significantly impact someone’s life in a powerfully profound way.
This is the core of what Sagen is about: telling incredible life stories through the most expressive and creative medium we know as humans: ART. Stories told in a vibrant, visual way that inspires you to finally take action. To seek truth. To feel deeply. To learn something that may have a profound impact.
Stories really are the way we understand and make sense of the world we find ourselves in… 🌎
Join me on this journey as we continue to tell life stories in a way that’s never been done before at scale. Welcome to Sagen!
- Chris
The Meaning Behind “Sagen” -
A Note From The Founder, Chris
I wanted to take a moment to explain who I am and what this project is exactly:
In a nutshell, I’m a creative storyteller who creates art and sometimes also partners with other talented artists to produce unique art pieces that tell people’s life stories.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with learning about others’ journeys, primarily entertainers and entrepreneurs, obsessing over how they navigate through life in typically such unique and unconventional ways…
This fascination with people’s journeys as well as a love of the arts has led me here to create Sagen. 🌎
So what does “Sagen” even mean? Where does it come from?
The word itself is German and has some vague history around storytelling. Honestly, one afternoon the name just jumped out at me and after some brief research, I realized it was the absolute perfect fit.
I’m a Brazilian raised in the UK but the lineage on both sides of my family coincidentally traces back to German immigrants. In fact, my grandparents on my mom’s side only spoke German in Brazil and not a lick of any other language…
“Sagen” in German literally means “say” or “have their say” and is the alternate spelling of the German word segen meaning “blessing”…
This is an excerpt that I think summarizes the word Sagen in the best way I’ve come across that encompasses the soul of Sagen which is really the intersection of storytelling x tradition x legacy x lineage x poetry x art:
“The Brothers Grimm shared Herder’s passion for the poetry and stories of the Volk. Their importance stems in part from the academic diligence and meticulousness that they brought to the recording and study of popular tradition. In addition to their collection of Märchen (“tales”), they published volumes of Deutsche Sagen (“German Legends”). These were tales that purported to record actual events and that were ostensibly set in a specific place and period, as opposed to the “once-upon-a-time-in-the-forest” setting characteristic of the Märchen. Collecting and classifying mythological themes have remained the principal activities of the folklore approach.”