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…
Category: Inspiration
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…
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…
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…
Yard Gone Wild #fanart #doodles
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TECKNA MÅLA. My father’s art supplies.
My father, Roar Thorsen (1930-2012), was my first art teacher. I grew up with his paintings on our walls, his meticulous scrapbooks/photo albums, his continuous creative process. In 1976 (we were back living in Sweden), my father taught me oil painting and he gave me his paint box, and easel from the 50’s and 60’s, and…
Alone time in my “backyard.”
My social anxiety is at a great height these days as I navigate all-sorts in my life. So I savour alone time and nature in my “backyard.” Today’s lagoon walk sightings and sounds included: Starlings, Crows, Sparrows, Pigeons, Herons, Wrens, Squirrels, Ducks and ducklings- mallards, wood ducks, Canada geese and goslings, Raccoons, Thrush songs, Robin songs, Eagle songs, Bugs, Dragonflies- so many! Skimmers, darners, damsel flies. Red, white tail,…
Meanwhile, nature enchants.
It is Sunday morning and I look out my kitchen window, alarmed at the silence. There are no bird songs. No pigeons cooing, no seagulls screeching, crows cawing, sparrows singing… I took a walk into the park on Friday. Looking out over the ocean into the haze, eyes, stinging, feeling heartbroken for Earth. Meanwhile,…
Collaging as writing process
Collaging helps me write and stay in process. Images of the era (in my case the late 40’s) trigger ideas and storylines. (Thank you to Darcy for collage night, the LIFE magazines, the collaboration and the varnishing process! And chats!) See also:
I am obsessed with a photo of Lucy Knisley. So I had to sketch it.
I am obsessed with a photo of artist Lucy Knisley. So I had to sketch it in my journal. Those eyes. That spirit. That talent. I am, by my superficial definition, an ugly person. “I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.” ― Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye …
A sock snapping turtle eating David Sedaris’ tumour. A handmade gift.
Does anyone else (well, I know my daughter does) feel like David Sedaris (and his sister Amy) is a family member? I am that kind of fan. Sorry. Reading his books, alone or in public, inevitably leads to me rocking back and forth in tears or in laughter or both. I have always fought against…
Shaping non-fiction characters.
What was initially to be a short volunteer research project into a Vancouver cold case to support a theory championed by a retired homicide detective, became, for me [and continues to be], a 17+ year personal journey “to restore to now dead people the fullness and degree of complication of their lives. To restore their humanness…
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)
“All you have to do now is allow…” Sabbatical reflections.
I am on sabbatical/working remotely/dog and kitten sitting in San Francisco… life changing, soul searching, peaceful… no words suffice. The real lesson will show itself soon. It is finally here! What you’ve longed for is finally here! Know that all you have to do now is allow and be receptive when the opportunity presents itself….
Here were valleys filled with tiny trees and minuscule, tangled vines…
I am a collector. I love the details of seemingly mundane little objects. I collect discarded plants and nurse them back to life. I collect bits and pieces underneath the heron nests. I collect chestnuts. They remind me of my mom, who would often tell me she collected chestnuts in shoeboxes as a child. I…
There are times of no ideas… – Lynda Barry (but there is always process)
Daily disciplined connection with my journal maintains my creative process and even though the entries are seemingly unrelated to my writing project… … they cleanse my brain and I am more driven to write as I stay in flow…
RIP Freddie Jones
Frederick Charles Jones September 12, 1927 – July 9, 2019
I am happy among my books – I am not happy without them. – Anne Lister
“Anne’s reliance on her books for mental well-being and personal happiness was clear – ‘What is there like gaining knowledge?’ she once said. ‘All else here below is indeed but vanity and vexation of spirit – I am happy among my books – I am not happy without them’ (2nd May, 1829). Words on a…
Man klarar sig i många år på ett ögonblick…
Just a few moments from this past week. I was gifted 3 very special, very moving, very private days in Stockholm. It was about family, about grieving, about celebrating, about the city. Man klarar sig i många år på ett ögonblick… – Kalle Moraeus, Sommar Pratarna, SVT24 [You can survive many years on a moment]…
There is one moment in Pippi Longstocking that nailed it for me…
As a child, I desperately searched for characters in books that aligned with my anxious outward ways and my happy reclusive interior. Charlie Brown came close, but he was always seeking connection. I was seeking alone time. Like Charlie, school terrified and exhausted me. Home, my room, my books were my calming tools. I found…
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…
Silent interiors…
Fort Langley National Historic Site, Easter, April 21, 2019 I spent a wonderful afternoon with my family in Fort Langley today. While the egg scramble mayhem and sugar highs rang out outside, I was drawn to the silent interiors. Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual…
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…
Vision 2019: COURAGE
Recall My Big Vision and Mission for 2018: Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung This vision board has stayed on my bathroom shelf all year as a daily check in. And as I reflect on a year…
It’s not that I don’t know what to do.
Regarding my passion project Molly- a true crime analysis: 2003-2016 was all about researching, drawing, accumulating, writing, collecting. 2017 was all about creating an online weekly draft, telling the story with images, words and music in whatever way it unfolded, sharing it openly, publicly. 2018 has been all about allowing others in, and letting go of control,…
Potato Nose Diaries (1977): Instalment 9- Torpet
Previously on PND: Instalment 1: Introduction Instalment 2: The First Entries Instalment 3: Do Tendu Jetés en Balance Instalment 4: Sex Education Instalment 5: They Don’t Know What It Is Potato Nose Diaries (1977) Short: I am 15 now Potato Nose Diaries (1977) Short: The Audition Instalment 6: The Trip to Paris Potato Nose Diaries (1977)…
60 years ago my mother became a mother. (Karin Kristina Orwald 1936 – 2008)
Decades are significant. 60 years ago my mother became a mother. 50 years ago we moved to Canada from Sweden. 50 years ago, my mother started to write letters home to Sweden. 30 years ago, my mother’s second grandchild was born. 10 years ago, I had my ear to my mother’s chest and listened as…
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…