Words Beyond the Canvas
Chapter 1: Compilation of
David Sorensen's Writing
Phase 1
From June to the end of July 2024, my focus was solely on compiling my father’s letters and notes and sketches, in order to assort and catalog them, while also choosing what segments of writing would be the centre focus for 15 paintings. I set out to search for diverse texts that conveyed and offer up a wide scope of insight into who he was.
As I examine his writing, I encountered anecdotes and descriptions about his life in the Eastern Townships. This particular region, characterized by its unique landscapes, culture, and history, is where he settled in 1975 and also where I grew up. This area clearly played a significant role in shaping my father's artistic sensibilities.
The Compilation of David Sorensen’s Writing took place in the house that he built in the woods, between Ayer's Cliff and Coaticook, in the Eastern Townships.
By sorting through his letters, notes and sketchbooks I was able to learn more about who he was beyond a father, husband, painter, teacher, etc. He was an avid letter writer, so I reached out to his pen pals to see about acquiring copies of some letters (or excerpts) that they had written to each other.
Delving into my father's writings has been a deeply personal and introspective experience. I am grateful for having the opportunity to gain insight into his thoughts, emotions, and artistic vision.
Words Beyond the Canvas
Chapter 2: Creation of Paintings
Phase 2
From August to December 2024, I was focused on interpreting my father's words and translating them into visual images, in hopes of expressing my own artistic voice and creativity, as well as paying homage to him.
I chose excerpts of my father's writing and attempted to translate them into visual images on my canvases. The words and floating thoughts from my father's letters, sketchbook and biography notes have served as a source of inspiration, that have guided my artistic interpretations and helped capture a quality of his essence in my paintings and beyond.
The style of the 15 paintings that I have been work on are mostly abstract, with some figurative elements.
In Phase 2 , I also began to attempt to integrate technology into the creative process, in order to generating a different visual inspiration. The A.I. platform, Midjourney Alpha, has offered some interesting amalgamated feedback, whereby text and visual depictions are blended together in a similarly playfulness and fluid fashion found in the writing of my father's. As this A.I. tool analyzes my father's writing, it determines what are the key themes, sentiments, and stylistic elements and provides an objective perspective. Below are a few examples of some of the A.I. results.
Words Beyond the Canvas
Chapter 3: Commemoration Crafting
Phase 3
I wish to writing a short intro on who my father was in order to honour his life and legacy, even if only a few chapters of it are spotlit.
I would like to highlight the connections between his writing and his visual art, demonstrating the interplay between these two creative facets of his life. I would also like to give precedence to the time he spent in the Eastern Townships. Through research, interviews, and personal recollection, I look forward to developing a text that encapsulates his relationship with this corner of the world.
I plan to contact his friends, students and colleagues from the Eastern Townships, who can perhaps provide valuable insight and personal stories about his engagement with the community, in particular through his letter writing. I hope to shine light on this less recognized passion of his.
The combination of my paintings and the biography, alongside his own writing, has the potential to come together and create a multidimensional portrait of my father. His spirit was immersed in creativity and investigation, and writing helped facilitate and crystallize his living thoughts and notions onto paper, and was very much a part of his daily engagement, as was painting.
Sharing his personal points of view, in his unique writing style, and preserving his memory for future generations to come is something I would love to be apart of.