Earthen Vision

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Powell River, BC
Earthen Vision

Accompanied coaching journeys for professional development & strategic decision-making, designed for for creative, eco-conscious leaders and innovators.

Strategic sessions available online and in-person on the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, for organizations and professionals using creative, land-based approaches.

- Sarah West, MPA, BA(Hons), DKATI
Consultant & Environmental Arts Therapist

11/10/2025

Taking a break from the socials! If you need to be in touch, or have questions about my creative, land based coaching, please do get a hold of me at sarah@earthenvision.com (l*nk to info as always in b*o) 😉

I’ll be off until the end of November, possibly until the Winter Solstice 🌿

See y’all on the other side!

11/07/2025

Lineage…. How do you know what you know? Who taught you? What was their experience? What has been their level of dedication, of apprenticeship, of service?

In a world increasingly flooded with computer generated content and self proclaimed healing coaches, discretion is key when we choose what and who to learn from.

When I talk about and engage the natural world, it is grounded on a lineage of being brought “under wing” these past 17
years by Anishinaabe, Cree and Haudenosaunee Elders, lawyers, educators, politicians and civil servants.

They were the first to - kindly - point out that I come from a lineage that is both the colonized and the colonizer.

This was long before the current popularization of lip service being paid to “decolonization” we’ve seen in recent years.

My Scottish, Irish and English ancestors have long been severed from their indigeneity. But there’s something in us that wants to remember our ancestral ways.

And sometimes, just being in the presence of someone embodying such things is the nudge our bodies and psyches need to begin to remember.

The Anishinaabe, Cree and Haudenosaunee peoples I’ve worked with have demonstrated to me what true indigeneity looks and feels like in the body and in our lifestyles and communities, in relation with the natural world.

For this uncommon, long-standing gift, I am so grateful.

*photo is of an ancient old growth cedar on Vancouver Island

10/22/2025

Anyone else feel the urge to greet stones bursting with personality? As per usual, there’s indigenous ancestral method behind such practical magic.

In Northern European countries, especially in Ireland and Iceland, there still exists a strong belief that supernatural beings occupy large stones and rocks, or live beneath them.

In Iceland, earth beings that live in stones are called “landdisir.” They were/are considered guardian spirits in certain areas and connected with specific peoples/families.

As with anything landing in the realm of magical, this belief served a practical purpose. Stones believed to be housing earth spirits were respected, tended to and most certainly never intruded on. This long standing belief has kept certain areas untouched by development.

And folks who carry these beliefs aren’t just airy fairy tree huggers.

In Iceland, it’s so embedded in collective consciousness, considering earth spirits is actually folded into official legislation governing land codes and conservation in the country.

In Ireland, publicly elected councils have rerouted major roadways to avoid trees believed the house the fair folk (Ireland’s earth spirits).

Right?!?

So when we talk about “nature connection” or “listening to the land”, this is just one layer to consider when we actively wish to learn from and partner with the land.

09/11/2025

The year I finally eased seamlessly into the cycle…. soil health, organic gardening, food preservation and remineralizarion for my wee patch of earth to steward 🌿

So

Much

Food

08/15/2025

Folks will often look longingly at art making, and say “I’m no artist.” They hold back.

When faced with a buffet of materials, handed supplies and offered gentle suggestions…. People just start to MAKE STUFF.

Naturally, easily.

The light in their eyes.

The joy and delight.

The release and playfulness.

The “gosh, I haven’t felt like this since I was a kid.”

It is so gosh dang heart opening, and this is the soul essence of what art therapy does.

The ability to create is in our bones.

And our hands remember.

07/27/2025

One of the major things my eco art practice has taught me is that of honourably working with.

When looking at all the earth provides to create with….

Bones, plants, sticks, shells, cloth, hides, stone…

…. I ask myself…..

Do I have the time?
Do I have enough desire to see this through?
Do I have enough stamina and will to truly try to make something of this?
Can the ecosystem sustain this use?

Because when it once was alive,

When it once was a plant or animal kin,

The stakes feel higher.

It cannot be as easily chucked aside like plastic materials, quick drawings, or materials in glossy abundance like magazines for collage.

I can dance on a floor full of collage scraps with delight, but staring at an unfinished hide in the corner or tossing a set of rotten bones I neglected for too long…. My goodness that has an impact.

Working with the eco arts cultivates intention setting, and seeing things through, as a direct, hands-on experience of creating with our plant and animal kin.

It means doing less, using less.
It means using material and time, wisely.

I look at the indigo I planted in my garden for the purpose of making dye two years ago. This year, it’s big enough to harvest. This year, it sinks in how INVOLVED indigo dye making is.

And I sigh, ever so slightly.

It’s not the kind of energy I want to bring to a plant or a project.

And it’s grown so abundantly, cradled in two years of desire for the bright blues of indigo.

It’s this very subtle tension of the eco arts that makes known the delicate balance of what it means to be in relation with the earth in a good way, that I’m so grateful for.

07/21/2025

“Beautiful and dramatic” as the editor put it - Completely delighted to be published again in an eco psychology journal, around my recent explorations of working with bones. Also so liberating to write with my true voice, unconstricted by any formal structure.

Please do have a read, it’s been great fun! (Sometimes Type 2 fun)

Open access journal, l*nk in comments.

07/12/2025

All the stoke to be facilitating a weekly drop in creative art pod in my community with fellow art therapist .art at the famous .bakery.

🪨 Every Thursday 5-7pm
🪨 Drop in, no registration needed
🪨 Art supplies provided
🪨 Treats and drinks for purchase

Oceanfront epic scenery included.

See you there 🌿

06/09/2025

One morning I looked around my space and saw whitening in the summer sun

humerus of black bear
sacrum of deer
spine of racoon
skeleton of snake
scapula of elk
vertebra of whale
tail of coyote

and many more.

They had all come to me, in one way or another, over the last year.

*excerpt from a wee piece I’m putting together for an eco arts journal

04/26/2025

Inspired by a basket I encountered in a museum, I wove a shellfish gathering basket made from the invasive ivy that’s growing on the land I live on. Woven loosely enough to let the wee ones and all the sand go with a swish 💚

I love seeing my vibe and clothing meld more and more with this land.

Address

Powell River, BC

Website

http://www.earthenvision.com/

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