Clyde Petersen (they/he) is a transgender Northwest artist, working in film, animation, music, installation, and fabulous spectacle. Using large-scale installations to draw viewers into the landscape of his films, Clyde’s solo exhibitions often feature life-size replicas of objects and nature. Made entirely of cardboard, these landscapes fill the room and surround his film projections.

He re-creates lost worlds and documents queer culture that has been largely erased by AIDS, capitalism and gentrification. He works to offer alternate, more equitable realities and futures through the reexamination of overlooked histories of queer communities. His work is slow and patient, animating only a few seconds of film a day, gathering new oral histories and building scale-model worlds to tell stories in.

Clyde is the director of Torrey Pines, a stop-motion animated feature film with a live score that toured the world for two years. Torrey Pines is an autobiographical film about growing up with a schizophrenic mother as a queer youth in the early ‘90s. He is currently working on two new feature films: Even Hell Has Its Heroes: The Music of Earth, a documentary about the legendary Seattle band Earth, shot entirely on Super8 film, and Our Forbidden Country, a stop-motion animated film about the history of gay cruising in pre-AIDS Seattle.

In 2019, Clyde founded The Fellow Ship Artist Residency, a paid residency for queer and BIPOC artists to spend a week on Guemes Island in the Salish Sea. He lives in a wooden boat on land on Guemes Island, works on films, and runs the residency space.

I have too many ideas.

I wish I never had to sleep and I could live forever. I love making analog art. I love to build giant installations out of cardboard.

My biggest challenge this year has been to become a knowledgeable film cinematographer. I am directing and shooting a feature documentary on Super 8 film. It brings me great joy to work with this format of film.

I am hoping that someone with an extraordinary amount of money will gift it to me so that I am able to create all of the things I can think.

2018 Amazon Artist Grant 


Seattle CityArtists Grant

e4c 4Culture Art Grant

2017 4Culture Individual Artist Grant


Ottawa International Film Festival Special Jury Prize: Torrey Pines 



2016 Neddy at Cornish Award in Open Medium 


New England Foundation for the Art's Touring Grant 


TWIST Special Jury Prize: Torrey Pines


Seattle CityArtists Grant


Jack Straw Artist Support Program Audio Recording Grant

2015 The Stranger Genius Award


2014 
 Artist Trust Innovator Award 


4Culture Individual Artist Grant 


City of Seattle Emerging Artist Roster 2014/2015



2013 
 4Culture / City of Seattle Hazardous Materials Film Project

Artist Trust GAP Award

2012 4Culture Individual Artist Grant

Seattle CityArtists Grant

Awesome Foundation Grant

2011 4Culture Individual Artist Grant

Seattle Youth Arts Grant

Cannes in a Van - Van d’Or Award for Best Music Film

2010 Seattle Public Transit Grant

Humanities of Washington Award

2009 Seattle CityArtists Grant