For Angela Morris, creating art is more than putting paint on a canvas.
It is a way to slow down, spend time in nature and make room for something she loved long before her career took over her life.

Angela says she had always been artistic growing up, painting and drawing throughout her childhood, teenage years and into her 20’s. But when she became a pilot, art gradually disappeared from her life.

“I got so busy,” she says. “Flying in my career, it just took over, and I just stopped my artwork.”

Her aviation career took Angela to northern communities, including Yellowknife, where she says she worked six days a week.
Even her one day off was not necessarily a day off.

That essentially meant working seven days a week, a schedule Angela says she kept for six years. She later moved to High Level, where she worked as a medevac pilot on a schedule of 14 days on and seven days off.

With aviation demanding so much of her time, Angela says there was little room left for art.

Years later, as she began making major changes in her life and focusing more on herself, something from her childhood returned.
Her mother encouraged her to paint again.

“You know, you should paint again. You should paint again,” Angela remembers her mother telling her.

Angela listened.
She began drawing and creating again and quickly discovered how important art could be in her life.

“It really helped,” she says, explaining that creating gives her a chance to quiet her thoughts and focus on what is in front of her.

Today, Angela’s artwork takes many different forms.
She paints on rocks, wood, tiles and old saw blades. She also creates pieces using sea glass collected during visits to Vancouver Island, where her parents house-sat during the winters for 11 years.

Angela says her mother would take her to the beach, where she collected pieces of sea glass and brought them home to turn into artwork.
Nature remains one of her biggest inspirations.

“Love nature,” Angela says.
Sometimes the inspiration comes from something as simple as an object sitting nearby.
One of Angela’s paintings features a bicycle inspired by an old bike she found at the dump. Another began with a large saw blade.

Angela remembers sitting in front of the blade and wondering what she could create around the hole in its centre.
Eventually, she had an idea.

“I’m going to make it the sun,” she says.

The finished piece became a landscape, with the hole transformed into a setting sun overlooking water and a tree line. Angela also paints birds and has been working on a bird feeder featuring several species, including a yellow-bellied sapsucker, marsh wren, Steller’s jay, rufous hummingbird and Wilson’s warbler.
Her artwork is now something she shares with others, including selling pieces at markets.

But painting is not the only creative part of Angela’s story.
She is also a self-published author.
Angela has journaled for much of her life and continued writing as she went through major changes in adulthood. Eventually, she shared some of those entries with a small group of friends and family.

They encouraged her to share them with others.
Angela says she never sat down intending to become an author.

“I never set out to write a book,” she says. “It was already in my journals.”

With help from friends, Angela went through her writing and selected 45 stories. The entries were first shared through a blog before eventually becoming a book.

A friend who already had experience writing books helped Angela put everything together, including designing the cover.

Angela then self-published the book and began selling copies at markets alongside her artwork.

Sharing something so personal was not easy, but Angela says she wanted her experiences to have a purpose.

“If it helps one other person not feel so alone,” she says, it is worth sharing.
Angela says people often appear fine on the outside even when they are going through difficult periods in their lives.

“Sometimes things aren’t fine,” she says.

For Angela, creativity has become one way of making time for herself.
When she sits down to create, the long list of chores and responsibilities can finally wait.

She describes becoming so absorbed in her artwork that hours can pass without her noticing.

“Time and space doesn’t exist,” she says. “All the worries go away.”
Angela says she is still learning that not everything needs to be accomplished immediately.

“The lawn’s not going anywhere,” she says. “The laundry is not going anywhere.”

That lesson is reflected in what Angela hopes comes next.
At 50, she wants to continue learning about herself, spending time creating and making sure art does not disappear from her life again.

She also has plenty of material left to work with.
Angela estimates she has around 60 journals and is considering turning more of those entries into another book.

For now, her goal is simple: continue creating, continue growing and keep making time for herself.

Julia Magsombol
Lakeside Leader