Operative Profile: Kat Thorsen

Posted by main operative on Apr 30, 2011 in News | 0 comments

Kat became an Operative in the summer of 2009 by sponsoring a sock monkey on a trip to South Africa. She contacted OSM claiming that sock monkeys were her religion and she wanted to help. 18 months later she has started a Western branch  of OSM, taught dozens of sock monkey workshops to promote the cause and crafted hundreds of monkeys! She is an artist, an art therapist and a Mom, a devoted daughter, a teacher, a friend, a force to be reckoned with and an incredible gift to this world!

With her students at Keith Larsen Secondary school she has created sock monkey delegates for missions to South Africa & Lesotho, Waswanipi and Nataquashan communities in Northern Quebec and most recently, Haiti. She has worked her tail off promoting OSM to the good folks of British Columbia and right on down the west coast as far as San Francisco. Highlights of Kat’s craftivisim include the Stephen Colbert Monkey- Stunt of the 2010 Olympics,  and giving Operation Sock Monkey a western voice on Sound Therapy Radio.

Here is Kat talking about her recent project, Ethical Etsy

“The youth I work with present with a variety of issues including social anxiety, behavioral challenges, learning disabilities, substance abuse and mental health. My mission is to provide the opportunity for a reparative and holding experience in a safe and creative space in which the youth can take advantage of the opportunity to make art, express self, and deal with unresolved conflicts and feelings. Sock monkey making is integral in my art therapy program. In order to provide a healthy and educational way for the students to carry their craft making into the future and to earn a small income, I am now including youth art in my ETSY shop.”

Vistit Kat’s etsy shop Post Street Sock Creations where you will find a Cubist Sock Monkey, Frida Kahlo Monkey and sock species of all varieties including her extraordinary sock bird.