Archive for kat
A portrait of friendship
My friend kat kosiancic would have had a birthday a few days ago. Here’s one of my favourite photos of her, with her beautiful friend Lucy. Visit katsvox.
[We’ve uploaded some new poems there. – 10 Feb ’20
kat
My late friend kat kosiancic and I shared a devotion to the art of Andy Warhol. (I remember how angry she was when I attended a Warhol exhibit in North Van without finding her and taking her along.)
I found these self-portraits on my computer this morning. She made them in the summer of 2013 – kat was living in my apartment while I had a temporary spot in Olympia, Washington for the season. You can imagine how moved I was to see these for the first time, my friend’s charisma and beauty so fully there. I miss her every day.
These days I am working on adding some of kat’s correspondence to katsvox.com. It is a delightful and important project, though it’s been slow-going. My friend’s letters and emails and cards are enthralling, and I can’t read them without great & halting emotion.
katsvox
I have been adding material to katsvox.com, the website devoted to the art, writing, and life of my magical friend kat kosiancic, who passed away last August. Vancouver photographer Lincoln Clarkes, who worked with kat in the late 1990s, captured the amazing image above. There’s a gallery of Lincoln’s portraits of kat on the site now.
There’s a collection of pictures from kat’s young adulthood, including three self-portraits. Also added are new chapters from her memoir Calling All Angels and a fairy tale called The Princess of Darkness.
katsvox
photo of kat kosiancic by English Bay in Vancouver, 2013
With some of kat kosiancic’s friends and her dad, I’ve been curating a website devoted to kat’s art, music, and writing. It is called katsvox.com.
This site is an ongoing project. We have excerpted some of kat’s unpublished books and other writings and selected some songs for you to listen to and some paintings to see.
Down the road we hope to publish selections from her prolific and utterly delightful correspondence as well as portions of her journals, particularly her amazing travel writing. We will be showing more photos of kat from many eras of her life’s journey as well.
We would be grateful for any feedback you have. Our friend kat wrote every day, and she was always making art. Let us know what you would like to see more of. There is a contact / feedback page on the website. You can also get ahold me directly.
The Questionnaire, part 1
If there were an end-of-life questionnaire – and there might be! – here is how I would answer two questions:
Do you wish you were smarter? No. Intelligence did not make me happy. Getting older I have lost some and then some more, and have won eons of easygoing delight because of that. I always used to tell my therapists that I would give up a ton of IQ points for a little mental relief. That happened. Yay.
Do you wish you were kinder? Yes and No. I once told my late & beloved friend Kat Kosiancic that I hated hearing people say that they would have changed nothing in their lives if they had had the chance. Ugh! “There is never a good reason to be unkind,” I said. I quoted Henry James: “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” My friend Kat was very kind and plain in her response: “Being unkind taught you about kindness in a way that you never could have learned about otherwise.”
Poetic aspersion
My friend Kat once described a guy this way: “He has a pickle shoved so far up his butt that it makes him hiccup dill.” That still cracks me up.
Ellavon shined up
I started up Ellavon: An Ezine of Basic Culture in 1998 so that I could work with writers and artists whose stuff I liked. My plan worked beautifully. Our writers included Kristi Coulter, Robin Plan, Julie Damerell, Kat Kosiancic, Jeanne d’Arc O’Day, Jonathan Mayhew, Joseph Conte, John Glionna, Steven Silbert, and Chris Basil. Our artists: Lincoln Clarkes, Marilyn Suriani, and John Sindelar. And our interview subjects: Diane Middlebrook and Paul Kurtz (beloved mentors of mine, both of whom have passed away).
This week with the great help of Robot Overlord Inc., we fixed some back-end code, made (minimal) updates – Ellavon stopped publishing in 2002 – and got Mr. Sindelar’s gallery up and running again. We have been careful to leave the black-on-brick design of the contributions intact — to help you remember what it was like at the turn of the century.
Kat
A very serendipitous moment: A combination of my obnoxious insistence and Kat‘s natural, 3-in-the-morning grace. La!
“Be My Shadow”
In 2002 I helped my friend Kat Kosiancic produce her beautifully humane documentary “Be My Junkie Shadow.” Kat interviewed seven women who lived and worked in Vancouver’s downtown eastside neighborhood. Four of these women have since died, most recently Nicole C., shown above in a 1998 photo by Lincoln Clarkes from his epic “Heroines” series.
The phrase that became the title of Kat’s documentary came from Nicole, in an unsentimental and uncompromising exchange with Kat that you can read in full here. Below is an image of Nicole from the documentary.
Peace be with you.
“Peace of Pai”
My friend Kat Kosiancic is writing about her travels through Thailand. I love her writing. Right now she’s living in the bungalow pictured above in the town of Pai.
Kat in transit …
Kat writing
My friend Kat Kosiancic is hanging out at my place getting her notes together in advance of her flight to Thailand tomorrow. I hope she does a ton of writing, on the streets and on the beaches, and in the retreats, caves and hot springs there. I know she has several writing projects in the works, from fairy tales to pilgrimage memoirs. Years ago I called her “a polymath beat chick.” She still is.
Here’s a recent, really worthwhile Kat project: The C-free list. Kat writes: “The C-free list consists of things that I have personally found helpful on my quest for well-being after I was diagnosed with breast cancer over two years ago (see my story). The website [describes] alternative approaches that I feel help the body, mind, and spirit in recovering and maintaining good health and balance throughout life. The C-free List includes recommendations for alternative therapies, books, documentaries, diets, super foods and supplements, and also touches on how friends and forgiveness, love and laughter, mother nature, yoga, music, mantras and meditation, passion and purpose, power songs, the sisterhood, support, surrender, and words and thoughts help with the healing process.”
Here’s the Facebook Page for her project.
“Be My Junkie Shadow”
Photo Stills of Kat Kosiancic and Denise Greyeyes, courtesy of photographer Chris Young
Kat Kosiancic’s 2002 documentary, “Be My Junkie Shadow,” is a loving but stark portrait of women who have lived and worked in the downtown eastside neighborhood of Vancouver. Some of the women who participated, including Denise Greyeyes, shown above [with the glasses], have passed away since the film was made. You can see this wonderful work at the 4th annual “Frames of Mind Mental Health Film Festival,” this Saturday, May 12, at the Pacific Cinematheque Theatre, 1131 Howe St, Vancouver.
You can read online versions of Kat’s documentary interviews here, in the archives of my great old ezine Ellavon.com.
The C-Free List
Kat Kosiancic in Costa Rica
My friend Kat’s wonderful website, The C-Free List, “consists of things that I have found helpful on my quest for well being after I was diagnosed with breast cancer over two years ago … things that I feel help the body, mind, and spirit to recover and maintain good health and balance through life. It includes recommendations for services, books, documentaries, diets, super foods, vitamins and supplements, alternative therapies and also touches on yoga, meditation, gratitude, forgiveness, love, kindness and more.” The site explores alternative & complementary therapies, books, music mantras & meditation, and natural highs, and much else, with Kat’s deep insight and intelligence.
Kat in Vancouver
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