Clyde Petersen is an artist based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, working in film, animation, music, and installation. As a director he is most renowned 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 Your Heart Breaks is an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington (state), Washington led by artist and musician Clyde Petersen. The group was formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1998. Petersen is transgender and his songwriting, particularly on ...

. Between 2012 and 2015 he hosted the

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single in ...

''Boating with Clyde'', set on a small handmade boat in the

Washington Park Arboretum Washington Park is a public park in Seattle, Washington, United States, most of which is taken up by the Washington Park Arboretum, a joint project of the University of Washington, the Seattle Parks and Recreation, and the nonprofit Arboretum ...

. Petersen is transgender and his art often explores queer themes.

Career

In 1998, whilst living in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (lo ...

and studying documentary film production at

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

, 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. While working at a post-production house in Seattle Petersen gained experience working with animation on some commercials. Petersen has directed music videos (some of which were animated) for artists including the

Thermals A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

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

Deerhoof Deerhoof are an American musical group formed in San Francisco in 1994. They currently consist of founding drummer Greg Saunier, bassist and singer Satomi Matsuzaki, and guitarists John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez. Beginning as an improvised ...

, and

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was an American alternative/folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk music, folk and rock music, rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United King ...

. 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 Bo ...

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 is 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 harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

. 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 The Bellevue Arts Museum is a museum of contemporary visual art, craft, and design located in Bellevue, Washington, part of the greater Seattle metropolitan area. A nonprofit organization established in 1975, the Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM) provi ...

in Washington that’s a larger-than-life rock band's touring van in the process of unloading.

Filmography

References

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

Musicians from Seattle 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers Film producers from Washington (state) Filmmakers from Seattle American filmmakers American LGBT musicians American lyricists LGBT people from Washington (state) Transgender singers LGBT film directors 21st-century LGBT people