See original post of creating this painting: Of the Forest Deconstruction started Nov 4, 2022: Mixed them all up, collected them and laid in order of how they stacked. December 8, 2022: The accidental connections between between the randomly selected canvas pieces is satisfying. My eye naturally finds harmony in the accidents. I rediscovered the love…
Category: Artwork
Featured art work of the month (by Katarina Thorsen)- new or from archives.
My grandfather’s school photo- it haunts and taunts me…
I am obsessed with this photo of my grandfather’s school class (Hudiksvall, Sweden). He is in the top row, far left. I have drawn and painted it over and over for years. But something never allows me to finish. I get to a certain point with some of the students and then the rest refuse…
Painting in progress: Of The Forest, Värmland (self-portrait)
My niece, Vivienne, age 8, works on the piece with me. Bliss! The piece continues to evolve… With no attachment to outcome. Only to the process, which I find enormously healing. This is the forest in Värmland in which my soul most often resides… where I spent my childhood summers:
Painting: Of the invisible breath that swayed at once
Of the invisible breath that swayed at once… – William Cullen Bryant — This canvas is part of a larger explorative project entitled “Nature Nurture” conceived by filmmaker and multi-media artist Patti Henderson, “born of Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn. The first pandemic lockdown in British Columbia.” The project includes introspective photography and writing by…
A quick creative project on last day of 2019: The Death and Burial of Cock Robin
Rainy stay-inside sick day today. I have stayed in PJs and creative process. I spent the last few hours interpreting The Death and Burial of Cock Robin with ink, watercolour and salt. [Source: Gutenberg Press. Original text by anonymous circa 14th-17th century] Chanticleer, what want you here, So early in the morning? “Cock-a-doodle-doo,” says he, pray don’t you…
William March’s Company K (1933) studies- ink, watercolour, coffee, salt
I have never ceased to wonder at the thing we call human nature, with its time of beauty and its time of filthiness, or at the level of calm stupidity that lies in between the two. – William March, Company K (1933)
Inktober Oct 1-12, “Morfar’s Klass.” Old family photo studies.
I am obsessed with this photo of my grandfather’s school class (Hudiksvall, Sweden). He is in the top left. I have drawn it over and over and painted it. But something never allows me to finish. I get as far as some of the girls, then the rest refuse a portrait. I tried again…
Turn the page- visualizing fading memory
My latest favourite daily practice is to quickly sketch and then saturate the drawing with watercolour crayon and coffee. I love the feel of the wrinkled page. How the coffee ages the image. The way a drenched drawing has a life of its own – beyond my control. I am most in love with the…
RIP Freddie Jones
Frederick Charles Jones September 12, 1927 – July 9, 2019
The Sparrow’s Nest
Behold, within the leavy shade, Those bright blue eggs together laid ! On me the chance-discovered sight Gleamed like a vision of delight. – William Wordsworth, The Sparrow’s Nest, 1807
I keep the broken bits. They illustrate the subtext.
I keep the broken bits. I honour the cracks. They illustrate the subtext. There in I seek the true story. Subtext or undertone is any content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by the characters or author, but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the…
Ut Pictura Poesis- the narrative potential of the drawing
I draw pictures. I imagine storylines. I imagine a narrative, a comic, a screenplay… There is nothing quite as on target as the prose I write in my mind when on the bus- whilst staring out the window to deal with motion sickness, taking in the landscape. But alas, those musings instantly disappear as soon…
The sparrow is mightier than the machine
This morning, at the 23 bus stop in the West End, I heard the overwhelming LOUDNESS of humanity– cars, buses, construction, garbage container being dumped into a truck, a plane overhead, motorcycles. Cutting through all that noise was the song of one little sparrow. One little sparrow with a song so much mightier and awe-inspiring…
SOLD: “I saw the angel in the marble.” (Drawing on marbled paper)
ART SALE: I received some gorgeous Italian paper from Terry and Kevin Cowan recently. I let the marbled sheet guide my mark-making. No planning. Just unfolding. It’s my form of meditation. I saw the angel in the marble. (Katarina Thorsen, 2019) 20″ x 27″ China marker, acrylic, water colour on Italian marbled paper ART SALE: $85.00 CAD (including shipping)…
Give yourself the opportunity to discover your own imagery
Dreams of my art being attached to some kind of imaginary romantic self-sustaining monetary outcome no longer serve me. If my creative process is to continue to be my sacred practice, continue to develop, if my creative process is where I let go of attachment, let go of comparing myself to others, let go of…
“This Look That Was Only Yours,” a short film of my creative process
A short film by Anna Thorsen What I love about this film by my daughter is that she has been able to visualize the peace I find in the creative process. In my own home, on a cozy weekend, in pjs and cozy sweater… It also illustrates a core value I hold dear to my heart-…
Nature moves through carcasses…
Illustrating decomposition by allowing the newsprint to deteriorate over several years and for the dead bird to slowly be encompassed by embroidered roots and the dark. The process continues. Check out:
Bird spotting with a yellow legal pad and a walk in the park.
I walked around Lost Lagoon this afternoon. In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence. ― Robert Lynd I found a heron nest on the ground after a windstorm broke a large tree branch. I saw signs of early Spring. And hope springs eternal. What else did I…
The importance of being specific. Collage for 2019.
Recall Vision for 2019: Courage Last night I mind mapped around the heart image- and one of the key “to-do’s” for 2019 is PAUSE AND REFLECT, BEFORE SAYING YES. Tonight I spent time around the kitchen table, cutting and pasting stream of consciousness collages with my soul-sister Patti Henderson, as we chatted about life and about our…
Tuesday November 6, 1947
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6, 1947 MOLLY, A GRAPHIC NOVEL– my now 15+ years passion project– continues at the drawing board and at the writing desk and in my heart, with new developments, insights and directions behind the scenes. Some announcements in the new year. NOTE: this is a work of creative non-fiction inspired by true facts, evidence and…
Inktober 2018: 31 studies of Truman Capote’s IN COLD BLOOD
Imagination, of course, can open any door– turn the key and let the terror walk right in. – Truman Capote No. 1 Richard Hickock: “It was early, not yet nine…” No. 2: “Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry, but she always has time.” No. 3 Truman Capote: “In Cold Blood- a true account of…
Ghosts in the wall… #streetart
I think about the wall often. Many ask me about it. It no longer exists. But lives on in my heart. My new friend, Chrissy Davey (aka @craftyfatalist) recently connected with me on Instagram about my embroidered drawings. Serendipitously, she had taken pictures of a street art wall (in the lane behind 119 East Cordova…
Spirit Guide.
I was going to write tonight. Instead I fell down a nap hole and dreamt of a fox. I was going to write tonight about how much I hate my face, but instead looked up foxes and symbolism. And put on a pot of coffee. I was going to write tonight about how I (could)…
Die into life.
I haven’t posted for awhile. That’s not to say I haven’t been writing, drawing, planning, thinking, working. A new job started January 15 and somehow 5 months have sped by. Work has given me a place to land. During that time there have been some exciting new developments… Ah, blah blah blah. Fuck that. I…
Every stitch a thought- problem solving embroidering drawings.
I’ve got a lot to think about these days. (Not really any different from other days, I guess, but seriously, there is some amazing stuff brewing). To stay on track with massive projects, to dos and ideas racing around in the head, I have found great solace in pulling out embroidered drawings. As I stitch,…
Charming portraits of cats by my father 5 years after his stroke…
Going through my blog and archiving some imagery, I came across these charming drawings by my father– done in 2010, 5 years after a debilitating stroke.
UPDATE ON: Burning it down…
UPDATE: May 8, 2018 8PM: I received an extension and all is good in blog land! Thank you WORDPRESS Tonight at midnight, this blog’s business plan will expire. Not able to renew it, I am letting it go and allowing it to do what it will. Information will likely be lost, but that is OK….
Secrets and mysteries
Great, invisible stories are being written all around us, every day. The language of the world is full of ineffable secrets and mysteries. – Brian Brett, Tuco- the Parrot, the Others and a Scattershot World Reminding myself to take it all step by step by small step. Be well and be curious as you enter…
Reclaiming the act of creating…
I could sit and wait. Ask myself: how I will get back to that beautiful, exhilarating buzz of creative process and my soul’s work? But why wait? I MUST simply work. Reclaim the act. How? I mind map. I attempt to draw and throw out the results. I return to my crafts. I allow the…