10 Years This Summer: Still Getting To Chase Life

This is my first trip of this size in a long time: 3 years to be exact. I was so nervous. Things felt almost new. So many things had changed, and yet there were some constants. I had to get to see all of my special USA friends (or at least a good chunk of

Somethings Take Time To See

It was around the end of 2011 when my super good friend, and great artist & writer, Paul Harrison and I got together in a Cafe Nero in Doncaster (The only place to get a decent chai-tea latte in the area at the time… maybe it still is) and we talked about how we thought

Looking For The Helpers

When we look across the world, we see a scenario that I don’t think we ever really thought we’d see. The world is shutting its doors to keep out an enemy it cannot see, smell or hear. Now, some of us have waited our whole lives for state sanctioned introversion. One of my favourite books

If you end up having to be isolated at home

Being sick – chronically – on and off in severity has made it that I too have had my fair share of endless isolation.  Some of it in an attempt to not catch anything from others, most of it because I had NO energy/too much pain to do anything, or to try and leave the

Happy SMIZZmas: my holiday message to you

It’s the annual Smizz Christmas card!! I couldn’t decide which one to share, so I’m sharing them as a collection. As we celebrate the holidays, and enter into a new year – let’s remind ourselves that love is trust, empathy, humanity, mutual aid, and care. A society built on such love is a strong society—probably

Small changes

Time slows when the lights are fluorescent and the days are punctuated by the rounds of the medical staff. My head of studies for my PhD is a woman who is internationally known for her creative-design- person-centred approaches to dementia care. She’s an Occupational Therapist, with a background in art psychotherapy, and a PhD in

Every transformation that we are witness to changes the world, & this in turn, changes us: 3.5 weeks of lessons in PhD-kingdom

It’s only been basically 3.5 weeks of being an enrolled PhD student. And what is it teaching me? Well, I’m being schooled,  once again. I keep being met with questions of what I’ve done – and I try to justify my lack of products with: “I’ve been doing it for 3 weeks?”… but people want

learning to lean in

Words are  often a poor substitute for imagery. One of my Doctors: “So Sarah, why do you want to work in healthcare – even though you’re an artist?” I spoke about my own experiences & the opportunity artistic practice can offer to enhance care and services – the ability to use a different perspective to

The things I’ve learned from a broken mirror

Saving a life doesn’t change the world, but for that person, the world changes forever. I’m right at the bittersweet end of my 3 years of  BSc Hons radiation-oncology school training. Assuming I pass the last few things, in 3 weeks I’ll be technically allowed, once my HCPC registration and license and indemnity insurance comes through,

Lasso The Moon

This week I was invited to #PatientsAsPartners16 event – It was organized in big part by Roz Davies – as part of Recovery Enterprises in Sheffield, NHS Confederation and Y & H Academic Health Science Network  & a bunch of other organizations and people. Drawing events and workshops and conferences aren’t an unusual thing for me.