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…
Category: Visual Storytelling
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.
Bunny studies, Jericho Beach. April 29, 2022
They are so sweet and so lovely to study. Lovely to observe and sketch but, sadly, there are SO MANY. Please don’t touch. Don’t feed. Don’t release. From City of Vancouver Website: Wildlife feeding is prohibited at all Vancouver parks and beaches. Doing so can land you a fine of up to $500. Incidents of wildlife…
… right to be angry…
“Every little creature has a right to be angry. – Little My, Moominpappa at Sea (1965), Tove Jansson
“Stanislaw K. was born in Poland…” Ward notes.
Graphic novel experiments. Pencil crayon, watercolour, ink, coffee, embroidery on newsprint
Bound Heron. (imagined) Part 1
Currently embroidery: Process continues…
Dead Bird Study Part 2
See: Part 1 PART 2: Watercolour, pencil crayon, ink, coffee, beet juice, salt, on newsprint, embroidery. Next up in Part 3 – add writing.
Dead Bird Study Part 1
Watercolour, pencil crayon, ink, coffee, salt on newsprint. Next up: embroidery.
Decomposition study- the mouse. Part 3 of 3
See: Decomposition study Part 1 Decomposition study Part 2 Decomposition study Part 3: Natural watercolours by Caitlin Ffrench, ink, coffee, salt, embroidery thread, vintage beads and fabric.
Imagined Bird Nest Part 3 of 3 #embroidereddrawing
Check out: Imagined Bird Nest Part 1 Imagined Bird Nest Part 2 IMAGINED BIRD NEST PART 3 of 3:
Imagined Bird Nest Part 2
Check out: Imagined Bird Nest Part 1 Imagined Bird Nest Part 2:
Imagined bird nest: part 1
Pencil crayon, watercolour, ink, coffee, cherry juice on newsprint. Next step: collage, embellish and embroider
Letters from St. Kevin
This all started because of a family Vacation Summer 1982 with my Dad, Mom, little brother. I am 20 at the time. The route: Nanaimo Campbell River Port Hardy Prince Rupert Hazelton K’san Smithers Houston Burns Lake Fort St. James Prince George Quesnel Williams Lake 108 Ranch 100 Mile House Cache Creek Kamloops Vernon Kelowna…
Journal entry December 1, 2020: I Can’t Write Right
When I can’t write, when I don’t feel right, I feel the black ink of angst/depression well up in my brain. And I pace around and around in there, first splashing in the black ink, then wading in it, then swimming, then oh oh – am I drowning? Ok, ok. Slow down. Use the ink….
10 years since “Olivia Saves the Circus” stop motion animation project at Keith Lynn!
Dolls and stuffed animals make me happy. Very happy. They always have. Some of my faves are hand-sewn little pig characters… but I will get to that. I am 58 years old and I still have dolls, still rescue dolls, make dolls. love dolls, receive dolls. I still have the first one (“Lisa”) I received from…
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:
“Familiar” – a documentary short by Anna Thorsen
One year ago, my daughter proposed a project. I am so happy I agreed. It was a powerful and transformative experience. Familiar is a short documentary about my Swedish mother, Karin Thorsen. Her story is told through the letters she wrote to her best friends from 1968-2001. This project was my daughter’s Grad Film for Langara’s…
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…
“She drank alone…” Journal entry
She walks– arms crossed, cold hands tucked into armpits, chin tucked into chest. The familiar dark ink pool spreads around her feet. She bends down this time. Curious? Her reflection- just fragmented spirals. She slips! lurching upward and backward, around. The black ink fills her mouth. Hog-tied, she lets out a fluid-filled silent scream. A…
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 2018: My 31 daily studies of Truman Capote’s IN COLD BLOOD
INKTOBER 2018 “Jake Parker created Inktober in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.” [SOURCE] — Imagination, of course, can open any door– turn the key and let the terror…
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…
I don’t bleed anymore. Finding solace in journal pages.
“These are the days of tweeting, blogging, posting, instagraming, snapchatting, you name it. Everyone seems to be doing it. Some people seem very comfortable expressing every morsel of their living and breathing and eating into the world. Not that this isn’t totally fascinating to the one sharing, but most people (including me) don’t care about…