Studio Series: Poetic Memory visual research

Poetic Memory visual research © Karen Thiessen, 2014

The new series that announced itself to me on January 1 finally has a working name: Poetic Memory. It is from a quote from Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being that I stumbled across on the Art Propelled tumblr site: "The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful (Kundera, p. 208)" The quote fit the feel of the new series like a glove, so I read the book to learn its context. 

Poetic Memory visual research © Karen Thiessen, 2014

This new Poetic Memory series is emerging in unfamiliar ways. It has called me to read poetry, create a soundtrack, and to make my first book to record my research and insights – all firsts for any series that I have made. I am reading the poetry of Mary Oliver, Jean Janzen, Karen Enns, and John Terpstra and am listening to Rachel Zeffira, Woodpigeon, and Rebecca Pidgeon and others.

By the time this series is made, resolved, and exhibited it will look very different from its starting point. I am wandering in the wilderness and I have never felt more alive.