Tag: Stanley Park
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…
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,…
Dead mouse (Stanley Park)
Rest In Peace little mouse, spotted on the side of the road in Stanley Park the other day.
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,…
Relaunch and new look: my online graphic novel “Molly, a True Crime Analysis, the third draft”
Molly- a true crime analysis is my experimental graphic novel, originally workshopped online in weekly instalments between January 15, 2017 and January 13, 2018. I call the current online version the third draft. mollygraphicnovel.com UPDATE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL IS BEING RE-WORKED AND THEREFORE SET TO “PRIVATE” WITH RESTRICTED ACCESS My work is based on extensive research, interviews and…
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…
I can feel the planet churning…
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. – John Muir When I am in the forest in Stanley Park, and sit down on the forest floor, I am acutely aware that I am on a sphere. In fact, I swear that I can feel the planet churning. I place…
“The Dead Heron.” #100Herons Art Project
I am between contracts– creatively hustling while applying for new contracts to survive and to be able to provide specially requested arts programming for refugee youth (at no cost to their program). That is what my 100 Herons Art Project is all about. HERON’S MOST SIGNIFICANT ESSENCE: aggressive self-determination and self-reliance Check out: I am focusing…
The Heron Feathers: 100 Herons Art Project
THE PROJECT: I am creating of twelve 20″ x 30″ panels depicting a total 100 Herons [between June 14 to July 31, 2017]. For every $25 raised I will draw a heron! THE SPONSORED ART will allow me to develop and provide much-needed FREE ART LESSONS for REFUGEE YOUTH from war-torn countries at a Lower Mainland program in July…
100 HERONS Art Project
THE PROJECT: I am creating of twelve 20″ x 30″ panels depicting a total 100 Herons between June 14 to July 31, 2017. For every $25 raised I will draw a heron! THE SPONSORED ART will allow me to develop and provide FREE ART LESSONS for REFUGEE YOUTH from war-torn countries at a Lower Mainland program. DONATION…
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…
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…
Molly- a true crime analysis, a visual serial goes online January 15!
How do you escape from a convincing story? After enough repetitions, the facts come to serve the story and not the other way around. – Errol Morris I began working on this PASSION PROJECT in 2003 when I was a volunteer criminal profiler on the Babes in the Wood task force in Vancouver, Canada. And…
… it goes deep, deep down into its burrow…
I was organizing my notebooks and loose papers and to-do lists at a coffee shop this morning. I love to organize, but I am strangely disorganized. Creative chaos is my middle name, but so are organizational skills. My mind runs a 1000 miles per hour, and so I write bits of quotes, make lists, tiny…
Stanley Park. Birds. Angel whispers. And Pledge Drive.
I walked around Beaver Lake today. 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 hands. I describe the feeling as angel whispers. I took…
Molly, my Molly, has acknowledged the past. #graphicnovel
— See there- my Molly, in death- so white Coming clothed in flowers, entering the night. My fate, through her eyes, is being foretold My dreams, my wounds, my joys she holds. Spirits, unpolished, stand back in aghast, Molly, my Molly, has acknowledged the past. “It’s not what I wanted! Not what I assumed!” And…
January 15, 1953. Stanley Park, Vancouver. #coldcase
Several developments since I last mentioned Molly. This work infuses my life in every way. I am currently editing the manuscript and working on releasing instalment 1 as a broadsheet. Animation test to commemorate January 15, 1953 created by students at Mountainside Secondary:
Molly’s confession. #graphicnovel study #openingsequence
I am going to tell the story of my life in an alphabet of ashes. – Blas de Otero — GRABLINE: He brushed the leaves aside and uncovered the most baffling double murder Vancouver has ever had. – The Vancouver Province April 15, 1953 MOLLY- the graphic novel —
It doesn’t stop him. My death stops him. #graphicnovel study
Recall March 7, 2013, photoshoot at Salmagundi West for my graphic novel. I am struck by the ability of my model, Jocelyn Louise, to convey, in a simple glance, the pain of my main character as she tries to escape the memories of childhood trauma. Asexual. Living in church, reading about God all the time, getting callouses…
With a faery, hand in hand… photo shoot for the #graphicnovel at Salmagundi West!
On March 7, 2013, I was humbled at the generosity of Salmagundi West owner Anna Banner who allowed us to use her store as a back drop for our latest photoshoot! I was joined by Jocelyn Louise (who portrays Molly) and stylist Jay Fisher… … and my daughter Anna Thorsen who took the main shots…
“Where white is black and black is white, I won.” #graphicnovel study #crowskull
When Crow was white he decided the sun was too white. He decided it glared much too whitely. He decided to attack it and defeat it. He got his strength up flush and in full glitter. He clawed and fluffed his rage up. He aimed his beak direct at the sun’s centre. He laughed himself…
Maybe you mistook me for an angel… #graphicnovel studies and research
Sometimes, the truths that we hold to be fixed in our culture develop a fissure, which widens into a crack, and as we watch, the mirror shatters shard by shard, until nothing is left but fragments of the prejudice lying in disarray at our feet. – Patricia Pearson, Perceptions of Female Violence and the Vocabulary…
… the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul… #graphicnovel study
It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! To hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure. – Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway MOLLY- the graphic novel —
Regarding Molly- importance of working titles and “acting as if…”
As I experiment with marrying text to illustration in my graphic novel, I am working from the end backwards, creating a working title and promotional mockup. Acting as if the book is completed, the project feels organized and allows me to create a skeletal framework on which to flesh out ideas. This framework can then…
The dissonance of text and illustration. Study for #graphicnovel #Molly #BabesintheWoods
MOLLY- the graphic novel —
Shame. Study for #graphicnovel
Recommended reading: — MOLLY- the graphic novel —