My @TwinPeaks fan art helps me hold on to the dream

September 12, 2017February 23, 2019 | Kat Thorsen

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 recall cutting out the news article about the pilot in early 1990. It showed Ronette Pulaski walking across the railroad bridge.

I recall the cultural shift when the show aired on April 8, 1990. The camaraderie as the weekly episodes were inspected and analyzed voraciously.

Our family’s countless trips to North Bend and travelling to all the sites from the show.

Staying at the “Great Northern” (The Salish Lodge) and walking down to the falls.

Meeting the one armed man and the man from another place (the arm) on the streets outside of the RR Diner during the first Twin Peaks festival. They signed our copy of Lolita- she is filled with secrets.

Drinking coffee and eating cherry pie at the RR diner.

Multiple trips, multiple times.

Being FREAKED OUT by Bob (to this day). On a visit to Las Vegas Fall 1990, I saw Bob silhouetted by the lights outside, in front of the sheer curtains, sitting in a lounge chair. He leaned forward and turned his head towards me. I leapt out of bed. JEEEEEEEEEZUS.

33483_10150277338365230_1971052_n — My son recreating the Laura wrapped in plastic scene at the exact location in 2010.

Reading Laura Palmer’s diary a gazillion times and collecting every clipping, article, book, collecting, collecting.

Trading fan art on instagram.

20604411_10214162456317549_5405710902540619377_n — Buttons and magnets by @skyyedawl

Looking for clues in every other Lynch film.

This new season was so much about my generation aging. Beautifully aging.

Aging is celebrated, honoured by Lynch.

I have wept for my own losses. All the life markers experienced since that first episode aired. (The log lady looking so much like my mother before she passed.)

We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream.

The dumbest and greatest and deepest show.

ART.

19554722_10213814800506371_9140500948045883332_n — My illustration (2016) for Matthew Roy’s incredible speculative fiction novel could be renamed “GOTTA LIGHT?” (Episode 8 Season 3)

She is filled with secrets. Journal exercise.

February 23, 2017 | Kat Thorsen

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 Peaks — *She’s filled with secrets. Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there’s always music in the air*. – Twin Peaks (Laura Palmer, china marker on newsprint, 2015)

I have found that by being honest with my audience, I can be honest with myself and also forgive myself for imperfections- or more accurately, celebrate my imperfections.

Here’s a good template for your exercise:

On postcard write a secret [or many] about yourself. Something so secretive, you’d feel really uncomfortable sharing it with the world. Write it out. You don’t need to show it to anyone. It’s your choice. Be brave.

Glue the written side down in your journal. The secret is there- but it’s simmering underneath.

Then on the message side, write a message to the world.

Recommended:

POST SECRET

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

Using Braid Theory to explain triple timeline. #Molly #graphicnovel

January 25, 2016June 27, 2016 | Kat Thorsen

It has taken me years to create a structure for Molly that could combine two stories that run both parallel to each other and have intriguing connections.

Massive research needs to be formatted in a cohesive way, yet allow for a compelling narrative.

Currently, three timelines run through Molly and eventually braid together converging in Fall 1947. I went into a research wormhole a few weeks back as I contemplated the image of the braid. And lo and behold, the braid theory is indeed a thing (ironically coined in 1947 by Emil Artin).

IMAGERY:

The braid and the trefoil knot-

A knot may be represented as the closure of certain braids. A mathematician’s knot differs in that the ends are joined together so that it cannot be undone. Thus braiding together the three timelines within the narrative leads to intriguing circumstantial evidence, intertwining of the two stories of the Babes in the Wood and Molly O’Dwyer.

We have all experienced on some rare occasion the feeling of elation in realizing that we have enabled our listeners to see at a glance the whole architecture and all its ramifications. – Emil Artin, mathematician

The trefoil knot (a play on the Irish Clover) further illustrates the convergence of the timeline in 1947- it is impossible to untie it without cutting it. It also alludes to Molly’s Irish heritage.

“Gentlemen, when two separate events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention.” –Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks

This is the endless magic that happens with this project. Incredible incredible magic. I must remember that.

Screen Shot 2016-06-27 at 7.04.12 AM — Oil on board- ode to Anders Zorn’s Braiding

I want to take your secrets public. I want to burn down the distance between us. #Journalexercise.

October 4, 2013October 4, 2013 | Kat Thorsen

I have found that by being honest with my audience, I can be honest with myself and also forgive myself for imperfections- or more accurately, celebrate my imperfections. By acknowledging secrets I can ask for help.

I want to take your secrets public. I want to burn down the distance between us. I want to give you breath. – James Ellroy, My Dark Places

Today we revisit an old journal exercise. Post Card Secrets.

Here’s a good template for your exercise: