Category: creative process
Walking Amongst The Shadows…
“Walking Amongst The Shadows…” Walking amongst the shadows, faces blurred out of recognition with only a final breath to eulogize their presence. 49 x 39 cm (Photography on photo paper, newsprint, ink, china marker, embroidery). Concept and photography by Patti Henderson. Collage, embroidery, drawing by Katarina Thorsen. This piece is a sample from…
Process: the Afterword page
© KATARINA THORSEN Graphic Novel Project
Snot Green Study
— The bard’s noserag. A new art colour for our Irish poets : snotgreen. You can almost taste it, can’t you? – Ulysses, James Joyce © KATARINA THORSEN
Following the thread…
JOSEPH (working title) is an experimental graphic novel series (in process). It is an Irish immigrant, Vancouver-based, family saga spanning 1924 – 1963. I use primary sources and creativity to build the true story. This is a work of creative nonfiction born out of historical research. I attempt to stick to the facts and avoid…
Restless Discipline
Staying in creative process allows me to stay in creative process… It’s a way of life. I am grateful for this “restless discipline.” Some glimpses in the studio this evening: You don’t get into the mood to create – it’s discipline. – Twyla Tharp October 14, 2023 Pulling a card (upright) from my favorite deck,…
Fear and doubt cracks me open.
Today I feel the old companions of fear and doubt. THEY CRACK ME OPEN. Can I do this? Am I good enough? Is it all shit? Hello inner critic. Hello fear. I hear you… I take the notes. And I keep going. There’s nothing wrong with fear; the only mistake is to let it…
Recapitulation
I am delighted to share a post (about a powerful shared experience yesterday during the Autumn Equinox) by Patti Henderson, my dear friend and often collaborator. Check out her blog at: creatornorthshore “Recapitulation – Release” by Patti Henderson September 24, 2023 Happy Autumn Equinox! My friend and often art collaborator – Katarina – and I…
Dear máither, it was awful…
Creative Non-Fiction Graphic Novel project continues… Main character tells his mother about the Coma Insulin Treatment.
How it starts… How it ends. Visualizing archival research.
Exposed old wallpaper, interior wall, bottom of the stairs, at the side entrance of my 92 year old building. (Sketch in progress)
On the exposed rocks out of water, the barnacles bubble behind their closed doors and the limpets dry out…
Magical moments captured by Patti Henderson as we explored and collected treasures on the beach at the foot of Erwin Park, West Vancouver. I will be using these studies as references for a page in Joseph. Patti is a generous artist and voracious observer and who has been collaborating with me for 30 years and…
4 hours of “freedom” on June 18, 1951
I have imagined this scene for a few years. Here the main character experiences 4 hours of “freedom” on June 18, 1951. Events leading up to this moment will be explored in the book. My creative non-fiction graphic novel leans heavily on Erving Goffman’s concept of “the total institution” and explores themes such as historical…
Disclaimer for “Joseph,” current graphic novel project
Disclaimer for “Joseph,” current graphic novel project (Chinamarker, turmeric, white acrylic ink on newsprint) My target date for completing the drawing process is June 2024. I am delighted to share that I will be publishing my completed graphic novel with Conundrum Press in 2025. Huge thank you to Patti Henderson for allowing me to use…
Sometimes, if I angle things just right…
Sometimes, if I angle things just right… at just the right time, I can pretend I am the only human in the park. The bird songs and gentle breeze in the trees can then seem louder than the seaplanes and distant traffic… And racing thoughts and complicated to-do lists fall away… Perhaps now and then…
Using labanotation as constraints to create a 9-panel page
I created a 9-panel page for my “Joseph” project based on a rudimentary intro to labanotation and based on a famous photo from a 1946 reportage, “a man constrained in a straight jacket stands alone.” Labanotation is a system of recording human movement, originated by the Hungarian-born dance theorist Rudolf Laban. The Laban system…
A contemplation
This past week, I had the pleasure of doing graphic recording for a group within health care as they reflected on Trauma and Resiliency Informed Practice. After I completed the transcription report, I decided to do my own a reflection. The result is a drawing as I contemplated the outcomes of the day. The drawing process: Lotus buds…
When a Story Finds You
I presented at Vancouver Heritage Foundation Heritage Lunch and Learn on March 9, 2023! When A Story Finds You – The Babes in the Wood Cold Case and Unexpected Discoveries In 2003, Katarina Thorsen volunteered as a researcher and student criminal profiler with the Babes in the Woods Task Force. The task force’s goal was…
Store window, Gamla Stan, Stockholm. A study
I came across a wonderful little shop in June 2019. Slow Fox Förlag Antikvariatet. Själagårdsgatan 9c, Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden. And I think about the store window ALOT. A study using Chinamarker, white acrylic ink, watercolour wash added using Caitlin ffrench’s wildcrafted pigments © KATARINA THORSEN
Decompose on forest floor study (embroidered drawing)
January 31, 2023 Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones out of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at…
“The Guardians.” A study
For Emma.
Crow study.
For Julian.
Follow the process: École Rochester Mission Statement Canvas
I will continue to post rest of process until done… Target completion date: January 6, 2023 Jan 6, 2023 Almost done! The grey rocks will have key “touchstone” words added and the field awaits the Mission Statement. (Excuse the photo quality. The colours at the bottom are brighter in real life) Update March…
Construct, deconstruct, reconstruct.
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…
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:
Cashel, Ireland “vision board”
The main characters in my graphic novel project (a true story) were born in Cashel, Ireland. I decided to make a “vision board” to help me focus on gathering the resources to one day (soon) sit in situ drawing the Rock of Cashel. (Then head down the hill for a pint and food.) I found…
Journal entry July 3, 2022
I believe (I already have to some extent) that I must make friends with death. And to to know to accept that I will dance once again in the that chasm before my conception and after my death. Forever. Timelessly. To the music of the Sparrow’s Song – Journal entry, July 3, 2022
Entangled roots as metaphor for two mission statements
Gradually, the observer realizes that these organisms are connected to each other, not linearly, but in a netlike, entangled fabric. – Alexander Von Humboldt Related: “Potential” I call it “Potential” to celebrate Diane and Doug’s work and legacy of fostering the potential in others. See:
Painting: Potential, 2022
Interactive Visual for Diane and Doug Clement event (Ink, acrylic, wax on canvas). Guests at the scholarship fund celebration (see below) added their names in the nest and leaves. I call it “Potential” to celebrate Diane and Doug’s work and legacy of fostering the potential in others.