The Creative Counsellor & the last year | Chilliwack Photographer

Things have been so quiet over in this corner of the internet - I’ve still been photographing things here and there but also really treasuring a rest and refresh around my art practice and how I express myself with images. It’s been so needed - the last few years have been challenging for many reasons and the way that 2024 has unfolded has been SO healing and so different in much needed ways. In February, Jamie and I moved to the sweetest little converted barn house downtown with our cats - it has a lovely deck space where I can lay out and read books, the happiest hydrangea, and a front porch I can’t wait to fill with pumpkins in the fall.

I also am now a registered clinical counsellor with a private practice called The Creative Counsellor - focusing around neurodivergence/ADHD in adults/women (including late diagnoses), creatives navigating their practice, self worth and self esteem, as well as grief therapy. You can follow me on Instagram here! I offer virtual counselling across B.C. and in person sessions right now at a cozy rented space at Thrive Collective on Sundays, as well as select weekdays downtown.

In July my best friend came to visit - we laid around in fields, wandered downtown, watched movies we loved as kids (looking at you He-Man Masters of the Universe) and really just hung out. Last time she came through we did SO MUCH (two day trips - we did Kelowna and back and Victoria and back, both in one day and I have no idea who that version of me was and where she got the energy). This visit was a lot more low key, I think we both really just needed some time together singing songs driving down Camp River Rd and late night chats in my backyard under the moon. I will always be so grateful for friends that are soul sisters - and so grateful for getting to see so much of my family this year, too.

We also had a beautiful internment for my dad, placing his ashes in one of his favourite spots to go walking. We all gathered together, singing I’ll Fly Away out into the morning while birds flew overhead.

It’s been a beautifully slow summer - and in that, I’ve taken a break since June from my photography business and really spent some time exploring my art practice. I’ve still been shooting and creating - my editing is taking forever - but I’ve found breath in the rest and my heart is full of so many new ideas. I have loved photographing all of you for the last 10 years and while I’m not sure how long this break will be, you’ll continue to see what I’m creating here and on my Instagram.

I hope these last months have been kind to you all, too. More to come.

Taken by my pal Jen Ault

Brittany had the idea of making wine for my dad and I designed these labels from a little photo shoot we had a few years ago at Island 22. Such a happy memory for me. We had the internment in the morning, followed by a very small family gathering celebrating his life.

These beautiful roses grow wild across the street.

Hello 2019!

Here I am, on the first day of 2019 updating my blog I AM ON IT.

In 2018 my goal was to be more present in photographs, and I plan to do more of that this upcoming year. I also have more creative projects in the works, especially personal creative work, while I sort out my counselling practice as well. 2018 has been a year of such creativity, growth and change that I’ve been lucky enough to take much of December to just reflect on how I want to move forward with my business and counselling practice and what that might look like. So I guess my goal for 2019 is for more of that, but balanced with just a few more naps than last year.

In the meantime, I’m super excited to say that 2018, with all the creativity, the beauty, art-making, triumphs - and yes, even with the losses, was magical, powerful, and full of growth. It was everything I hoped it would be, and I’m ready for all the awesome stuff 2019 will bring.

Thanks for following along with me this past year, trusting me to photograph you, and making art with me.

Sarah

This graphic of my face posted much bigger than expected, I’ll be honest.

2018, New Year New Website!

It felt time to do a big spring clean and relaunch this website, and I'm so ready for it - there are still some things I need to tweak (I know the galleries are huge! - I'm working on figuring those out for sure!) I'm constantly changing and growing as an artist, and I'm really excited to be able to update the portfolio with some of my more recent work, and current editing. I hope that they really highlight how much I love colour, candid moments, telling stories, and making portraits of rad people.

More updates to come over time, but first, this week I'll be working hard like a champ on my thesis. It's a huge project, but I'm so excited about all the different elements of it, especially because it's a photo essay. I've been doing a ton of reading for it, and I feel like my brain is full of so much inspiration - I really can't wait to get deeper into all of it. To do this, one thing I've decided to do is go away for a few days once a month for the next few months. Some space that's totally neutral, quiet, and hopefully tucked away in nature somewhere. I did this in January, and it was so helpful, so I'm going to continue this trend, and just keep writing away in the woods like I'm Bon Iver. 

Speaking of - I've slowly started to add more personal work to my portfolio, including an ongoing series called "Spaces I Called My Own", all about revisiting places I remember from when I was a kid, and photographing them through the presence of adulthood. It's on the back burner for now, but I'm excited to get back to work on it.

The project came from this yearning to revisit old familiar places, and recognizing that sort of melancholy feeling that came with realizing I didn't quite belong in them anymore. I've moved a fair amount throughout my life, and I tend to get an urge to travel once or twice every couple of years - almost always somewhere in Canada, almost always somewhere I've been before. Trips back would always include visiting places like my old street and school in Saskatoon, my neighbourhood in Thunder Bay, and even this summer, my old high school before it closed for good. It's really surreal heading back to these places - you feel the overwhelming tug of the past with your feet planted firmly in the present. 

I hope you all love this website refresh - once I get this chapter done for my thesis my next step will definitely be my packed and cluttered office.

For now, I'm going to head to bed with a podcast & tea! Email responses and invoices heading out late tomorrow. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

November Updates!

Hey friends! 

I'm a fantastic photographer, but I'm a terrible blogger. 

Some of my December & January goals are to overhaul this website and do some much needing updating to the portfolios, galleries, and this section - but for now, I'm editing into the wee hours and planning beautiful shoots, and writing my thesis - all while holding an old, grumpy cat on my lap. 

I have SO MUCH to show you guys, and I'm really excited about all of it - you can see some of it on my Facebook page and my Instagram, which I update a lot more frequently! 

(Model pictured: Corissa VH)