Clyde Petersen is an artist based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, working in film, animation, music, and installation. As a director, he is best known for ''Torrey Pines'' (2016), an autobiographical stop-motion animated feature film, which toured the world with a live score. He is the founding member of punk band Your Heart Breaks. Between 2012 and 2015, he hosted the

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

''Boating with Clyde'', set on a small handmade boat in the Washington Park Arboretum. Petersen is transgender and his art often explores queer themes.

Career

In 1998, whilst living in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the county seat of Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It lies south of the Canada–United States border, U.S.–Canada border, between Vancouver, British Columbia, ...

and studying documentary film production at

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington, United States. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, s ...

, Petersen started the band Your Heart Breaks. The band has released multiple albums, either by self-releasing or through small independent labels, throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Petersen worked with animation on commercials at a post-production house in Seattle. He has directed music videos (some of which were animated) for The Thermals,

Laura Veirs Laura Pauline Veirs (born October 24, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. She is known for her folk and alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang o ...

Deerhoof Deerhoof is an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. It consists of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised noise punk band ...

, and Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. In October 2016, Petersen released ''Torrey Pines'', a film he had written, directed, and animated over the previous three years. The soundtrack for which was recorded by

Chris Walla Christopher Ryan Walla (born November 2, 1975) is an American musician, record producer, and film music composer, best known for being a former guitarist and songwriter for the band Death Cab for Cutie. Musical career Early bands While at B ...

and features members of Your Heart Breaks as well as several other collaborators. The film was toured worldwide with a live score for the next two years. In early 2018, Petersen announced he was working on a documentary about the American drone metal band

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. This is entitled ''Even Hell has its Heroes'' and had its North American premiere on May 17, 2023 the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and feature ...

. Petersen's art installation work often uses cardboard and paper as medium, akin to his stop-motion animations. From late 2018 to spring 2019, he had an exhibition entitled ''Merch and Destroy'' at the Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petersen, Clyde Living people 1980 births People from Seattle

Musicians from Seattle 20th-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American singer-songwriters Film producers from Washington (state) Filmmakers from Seattle American LGBTQ singer-songwriters American LGBTQ film directors American male lyricists American transgender men American transgender musicians LGBTQ people from Washington (state) Transgender male singers Transgender singer-songwriters 21st-century American LGBTQ people Film directors from Washington (state)