Letting go In order to hold on I gradually understand How poems are made… – Alice Walker Recall September 24, 2017: Well, I did it. Finally. It was time for Asterix’s cremation. I pulled my parrot out of the freezer this morning and placed his wrapped body (decorated with a drawing by my…
Category: Quote
Quote of the month/week/day… (multiple sources)
The crown ripped away. Journal musings.
My head hurts. Not the inside of my head. The outside. The muscles on top of my skull. The ligaments. I sat under a young tree yesterday and leaned my head back and my head was and is tender, so tender. I swear my skull has changed shape in the past few years- at the…
My @TwinPeaks fan art helps me hold on to the dream
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream. I process my obsessions through creativity. And there is a lot to process as we have reached “the end” of Twin Peaks: The Return. A Lynch fan since Eraserhead, deeply deeply influenced and inspired by The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet, I…
SOLD: STUDIO CLEARANCE SALE: Painting entitled “The House,” 1998
Raising FUNDS, clearing SPACE and LETTING GO. STUDIO CLEARANCE SALE (Vancouver BC) FOR SALE: A favorite piece from my 1998 solo exhibit: Asta Sollilja of Summerhouses SOLD e-transfer or paypal: britakatarina@gmail.com CONTACT: EMAIL You pick up in West End, Vancouver The House, 1998, Katarina Thorsen It was a house and a stable in one. All that was…
The Mulberry @ParcLiving Fox Panels
I have the pleasure of working with an extraordinary group of individuals at Mulberry PARC doing art projects that range from drawing, interactive art, sock animals and group painting/quilt! Our latest session involved drawing the fox and creating two panels for tomorrow’s art show! Fox animal symbolism takes a turn of intelligence in the Celtic realm,…
Happy birthday, Frida.
I am celebrating Frida Kahlo‘s birthday! Although her birth certificate says she was born on July 6, 1907, Frida Kahlo told people her date of birth was July 7, 1910. She allegedly did so not to seem younger but simply because she loved her home country, according to The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo filmmaker…
From the heart- a 15 day journal exercise Part 12: the moment of death
I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching Up with Your Life Part 2: Practice Dying Part 3: Preparing to Die Part 4: Dying from the Common…
From the heart- a 15 day journal exercise Part 11: Fear of Dying
I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching Up with Your Life Part 2: Practice Dying Part 3: Preparing to Die Part 4: Dying from the Common…
From the Heart- a 15 day journal exercise: Part 10 Fear of Dying
I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching Up with Your Life Part 2: Practice Dying Part 3: Preparing to Die Part 4: Dying from the Common…
From the heart- a 15 day journal exercise Part 7: Fear of Fear
It’s been a while. It’s been a lot lately. But let’s see how this chapter unfolds. What it reveals. I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching…
From the heart- a 15-day journal exercise Part 6
I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching Up with Your Life Part 2: Practice Dying Part 3: Preparing to Die Part 4: Dying from the Common…
From the heart- a 15-day journal exercise Part 5
I dedicate today’s post to my soul-sister Patti Henderson and to our deep HEART chats. — I am re-reading Stephen Levine‘s A Year to Live- how to live this year as if it were your last as a personal exercise schedule to take time to slow down and truly listen to my heart. Recall: Part 1: Catching Up with Your…
“You’re a piece of shit.” #drawoutanxiety
Check out:
Anticipation: revisiting a journal exercise
Standing on the edge of the unknown, we anticipate. We over-think. And create anxiety that has no place to land. There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. – Alfred Hitchcock I created this journal exercise about 5 years ago to meditate on: releasing the anxiety around the unknown when…
My Stanley Park observations find their way into “Molly” at unexpected times
Our usual spring awakening is late this year. I recall a walk around Beaver Lake a year ago… I was infused by the profound beauty of nature. Warm sun. Blossoms. Skunk cabbage. Herons were dancing in the wind above the lake, ducks were courting and playing, chipmunks and squirrels scurrying. Chestnut-backed chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches landed on my…
My ugliness, my solitude, my experiences have built a protective wall
Diary entry April 17, 2017 Once I have reached my energy limit- my body/mind/spirit experiences a type of fatigue migraine– it comes on when I finally relax and have a day to stop- and seemingly ALL threatens to stop. My eyes can’t stay open in the tub, my heart feels tender, my to-do list seems…
Teachable moment during drawing session!
I have been incorporating How to Draw an OWL in my creative engagement for years. My must-bring tools always include: The china marker is the essential drawing tool. It is not only my favorite medium, but a great teaching tool as you can’t erase it. This encourages participants to let go and quiet down the inner critic….
“To prepare a face to meet the faces…” the Williams Lake portraits
There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet… – TS Eliot — On my way to Williams Lake to co-facilitate forums with youth and program leaders for the viaSPORT YOUTH INCLUSION PROJECT! So excited to spend the week with this extraordinary community! Bringing along…
What the sock pigs taught me…
This past Sunday morning- hanging out on Vancouver Island, my 4 friends and I had a hankering to create sock pigs. There is such magic in sitting around the dining room table at my friends’ house, surrounded by crafting supplies creating. We laugh, we go deep, we eat, we drink coffee, we share time. It…
Routine? No, ROOTine.
The word ROOTine came up for me the other day when I was texting with my daughter who is on a life-changing journey, travelling in SE Asia: Looking back on your life from a mom’s perspective as to when you have felt the most happiest is during developing an idea and planning transitions. When you have gotten…
Release attachment to the outcome…
To feel the anguish of waiting for the next moment and of taking part in the complex current (of affairs) not knowing that we are headed toward ourselves, through millions of stone beings – of bird beings – of star beings – of microbe beings – of fountain beings toward ourselves. – Frida Kahlo I…
Is this where they’ll find me?
Is this where they’ll find me? In the tub, laying back, my neck resting on the edge, my face covered with a book? Is this where they’ll find me? Seemingly asleep, one hand holding tight the book that covers my face, hiding the cheap reading glasses that have slipped a little, eyes closed, the mouth slightly…
She is filled with secrets. Journal exercise.
In honour of Laura Palmer, central character in Twin Peaks, who disappeared on the night of 23 February 1989 after a date with her boyfriend, we revisit an old journal exercise: Post Card Secrets. She’s filled with secrets. Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there’s always music in the air. – Twin…
Still willing to eat that shit sandwich!
It’s been a year and a bit since I came across this article by Mark Manson that asks 7 fabulous and profound questions re: finding your life purpose: I just LOVE his questions! I really recommend you read the article and contemplate the questions. As I read through them, all I did was nod, nod, nod-…
Recalling a declaration from “my future self” on July 25, 2015
Working on my graphic novel, I pull out research and reference materials from my files and come across a journal entry from July 25, 2015 created during Peter Breeze’s Be a Star workshop. This is truly why I keep everything for what an incredible reminder to myself that I am fulfilling my dream by whatever means necessary….
Three years ago, with shaky hand, I signed…
Three years ago, with shaky hand, but empowered to move my life forward, I signed bankruptcy papers. And my grown children and I signed a lease for a magical apartment in the West End. There have been dark moments since that have terrified me as I processed and struggled, but also so much lightness and so…
Celebrating 95 pages with a vulnerability hangover…
I am workshopping my graphic novel through a weekly online serial. So far… we have been witnessed a crime: Looked at the original headlines: I’ve introduced my involvement (more to come): And travelled to Ireland to get our first glimpse at the main character: Molly’s and The Babes in the Wood timeline are now starting…
Traditional craft: handwoven treasure by “Domestic Intervention Co.”
Being Swedish, I was raised surrounded by beautiful handwoven cloths. When I think about Sweden, I see looms. Textile art is in my DNA. My mother loved to tell me stories about my great grandmother– my name sake, Brita. Brita raised so many children with little money. She’d walk to town and check out the…
Slithering pancreatic serpent. #griefprocess
In November 2007, Dr. Ebrahim sat knee to knee with my mother. I was on the other side of the little examination room. I recall it was a sunny day. I think it was. Grouse Mountain shone in the background. I think it did. The room seemed turquoise. Friendly. We found a mass in…
Here’s to us crawling to the finish line…
Touch me life. Not softly. – Maya Angelou And my GOD, life has touched us this year. Here’s to us crawling to the finish line, scraped, bruised, hoping. Here’s to our successes and our fucking failures, to finally resting and to re-entering labour. Here’s to the vigil keepers, the rent seekers, to the quiet and the loud…