My Life Story and Timeline

I go by the nickname of Bo, my Danish mother’s maiden name. I like it because it’s short and easy to remember. A second generation Canadian, I hail from southern Vancouver Island, where I have lived the majority of my life.

I am sharing my life story in hopes that it will help you to understand how therapeutic art has played a pivotal role in managing my mental health and quality of life. Telling my story is also a written form of catharsis.

Younger Years

Identified by doctors as a highly sensitive child with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), I naturally latched onto creativity in order to cope with over stimulation. I also loved animals and especially whales. I was 3 years old when I was first introduced to killer whales. I was spat on by Haida during a show at Sealand of the Pacific. Memories of the captive orcas would follow me into adulthood.

Our family moved from Victoria to Toronto and back and forth several times. I will share a bit about my experience within the learning environment in both places. In preschool (Victoria), I suffered a head injury when another child threw a rock at me, while I played alone in the schoolyard. In Toronto, I was placed in learning disabled classrooms, humiliated when placed in cardboard boxes in front of the classroom, and failed grade 2. The experience of ostracization and being bullied by peers, built into me early on, empathy for others who were different.

As a child, I befriended a young girl with cerebral palsy named Caroline who lived at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Victoria, BC. The love and empathy I felt for her was overwhelming to me, often bringing me to tears. At this time I learned how to use non-verbal communication and basic sign language. Eventually we moved to Toronto and I never saw her again. I have never forgotten her.

While creative, I knew early on that I was empathetic and wanted to help others. I was a kid ballerina, potter, musician (piano, violin, flute), and attended theatre arts in high school.

As a teenager, I worked with the late John Walker a poet with cerebral palsy and learned how to use (pre-digital) non-verbal communication to assist with his writing.

In my early 20s, I studied theatre production at Toronto Metropolitan (Ryerson) University. However, inheriting my grandfather’s film camera set me on a different trajectory as a young adult.

Undergraduate Years

My therapeutic art journey got underway in 1993, when I started making abstract image art and experimental videos while attending Toronto Metropolitan (Ryerson) University’s Batchelor of Image Arts program (1997). Looking back, all my projects were cathartic in nature, I just didn’t know it yet. My projects helped me to face fears and process traumatic childhood events.

Films were screened in film festivals globally, (Breaching) received an award from the Victoria Film Festival, and (Neurofeedback) was nominated at HotDocs.

During my undergrad Image Arts years, I was a teaching assistant (to the late Jurgen Lutz) for the Visual Studies course. During the summers, I worked with kids producing Super8 film animations (assisting the late Aiko Suzuki) at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, and the Okanagan School of the Arts. I also designed and directed 35mm photography camps for kids.

Professional Years

After completing a Canada Arts funded film (Sea of Souls) about animist spirituality and orcas, I returned to B.C. in 1999 where I worked as a designer at several corporations in Vancouver. My first blog in 2000, was identified as “blog of note” by Google.

I assisted an Indigenous scholar at UBC in helping with Indigenous-led projects. The most memorable project was documenting a Vision Quest (2001) on Vancouver’s downtown east side to bring awareness to missing and murdered women. I was given a certificate for my involvement in the project. Additionally, my independent (cathartic) video projects were featured on Zed CBC and Knowledge Network.

Shortly after moving back to my hometown of Victoria in 2002, I continued to work in digital design until I was laid off. I then turned towards becoming a sole proprietor after taking small business training provided through EI, and branded myself as a documentarian. Throughout the 2000s, I worked with NGOs and eco-tourism companies. Highlights include traveling to Haida Gwaii where I documented the remote and uninhabited Haida village sites via a tall ship.

In 2003, I trained as a marine naturalist and embarked on my dream to document wild killer whales (until 2010) to help bring attention to their plight, from an independent third eye perspective. That means operating under my own conditions and viewing from different vantage points until I felt I’d seen enough. Highlights include spending several years with wild killer whales and summer camping at an orca rubbing beach. Some of this work was donated to NGOs and published in various media formats, museums, and print. My story of an injured humpback whale was awarded a certificate by the David Suzuki Foundation. Some of the downsides to doing this work was dealing with theft of my work, slander, and rivalry.

I was hit hard with grief after experiencing the impact of Luna’s story, a famous orca who was tragically killed in 2006. Although traumatic, working with Luna and designing the “Respect Kakawin” (killer whale in the Muchalaht language) t-shirt campaign remain the most memorable to me. My role as a steward and clips are featured in the award-winning documentaries Saving Luna and The Whale (as well the book The Lost Whale).

I launched my YouTube channel in 2006, and my video of Luna went viral ending up on a famous TV shows. 20 years later and that video still accumulates activity today.

I turned again to therapeutic arts to process what I had gone through, producing videos, photos, and 20 years later (2023), created (Luna Saga) story cards to work out my grief.

After being hit with a virus in 2004, I endured a vertigo condition. In 2005, I was diagnosed with a cognitive disability as per my EEG results, although I suspect this disability had always been there.

Part of my therapeutic journey included living in Mexico between 2006 and 2010, where I worked with kiteboarding, humanitarian (impoverished and disabled), and eco-therapy projects such as documenting Mayan village culture, trees, jungle wildlife (birds, crocodiles), plants (wild air plants), and insects (spiders and butterflies). I also offered cenote portraitures to locals and tourists.

During this time, I studied environmental and occupational health courses remotely through U Vic with the goal of completing a certificate but only got half way due to my nomadic lifestyle. A key project was analyzing the oil spill in Johnstone Strait, and area near a famous killer whale rubbing beach.

I met my now husband in 2009, lived together in Mexico for a time, then moved back to Canada permanently. I am grateful to have his support in what I do as it hasn’t always been easy due to my health issues. Interestingly, we met online through the orca community. I continued to work as a sole proprietor.

In 2010, I launched Lunar Maria Jewellery – making sea glass handcrafts for the purpose of cognitive and hand therapy. I found beach combing calming. In 2022, this expanded into my Nordic cultural heritage and rebranded as Bo Handcraft. I continue to work with my crafts for creative expression. Unique items include cards featuring digital collage, eco-therapy, hand drawn rock art and more.

Grad School Years

In 2016, I completed my MA in Communication and Technology at the University of Alberta. There I studied impacts of digital technology on my mental health. My capstone explored my viral video of Luna. I struggled throughout this academic process as I have a learning disorder, and found the load to be taxing on my nervous system. This eventually brought about a health crisis.

Health Crisis

In 2018, I underwent major abdominal surgery resulting in a total hysterectomy, ending up with frozen shoulder for almost a year with no resolve. In 2019, I took my first trip to Europe where I visited my ancestral homes of northern Italy and Denmark. While in Denmark, I received reflexology treatments that helped to reduce my pain, resolving the injury within a month. That inspired me to get certified in reflexology (RAC) in 2020.

Between 2019-2022 my husband battled skin cancer that resulted in him loosing a cheek. I used reflexology as a healing modality to help him through the challenging medical process and stress during the pandemic. Additionally, I studied several courses through Pacific Rim College.

Turning Point

From 2018 to the present time, I continue to benefit from eco-therapy often alone for the purpose of reflection and calming the nervous system. This helps me to cope with health issues and overall burnout from sensory disorders. I enjoy documenting fungi and took a course at Pacific Rim College about medicinal mushrooms. Eco-therapy inspires my therapeutic art.

In 2020, my project Careful Crafters was born – a place to house the work I was doing that had gone in a more holistic direction. I focus on making sensory engaging eco-therapy video clips and post them to TikTok and YouTube. 

I got certified in Online Learning Design and Development through Algonquin College (2022) to help with designing my content.

I was diagnosed with tendonitis of both hands in 2023 after dealing with several years of ongoing pain issues. While this problem comes and goes, I carefully balance the use of my hands with all of my endeavours. Due to this obstacle, I taught myself how to use my devices to write – blog, using voice command. The good news is that facilitating therapeutic art does not negatively impact my hands.

Cathartic Explorer was realized in 2024 as a means to encourage others to try therapeutic art. That year I produced a short film Alive and Dying about overcoming the loss of a loved one from suicide, and was screened at the Pender Island Film Festival.

As of 2025, it has taken me nearly 55 years to figure out that above all, I am a therapeutic artist. Today I use my creativity to mitigate feelings of negativity, channel my frustration with chronic illness, and bring joy to my life. My creativity has saved me time and time again and for this reason, I have come to measure my success through sustainability, not through financial gain, or clout. All the challenges and accomplishments were not meant to be shelved away and forgotten about. I feel the call to serve something bigger than myself.

I am always in a state of learning, it is a life-long journey for me. My current learning endeavour is writing.

Therapeutic Art Facilitator Training

• 2025 – Certificate of Completion: Therapeutic Art Facilitation School – non-clinical session structure developed by a registered Art Therapist

Academic Institution Learning

• 2022 – Certificate: Online Learning Design and Delivery – Algonquin College
• 2016 – MA: Communications and Technology – University of Alberta
• 2014 – Certificate: Digital Skills – OCAD University
• 2006 – Courses: Environmental & Occupational Health – University of Victoria
• 1997 – BA: Image Arts – Toronto Metropolitan University
• 1992 – Theatre Production – Toronto Metropolitan University

Additional Certificates, Learning, Training

• Colour Therapy
• Eco-therapeutic Guide
• Healing with the Arts
• Indigenous Canada
• Lego Serious Play®
• Marine Mammal Naturalist
• Marketing & eCommerce
• Master Oracle & Tarot Reader
• Medicinal Mushrooms
• Mental Health Ambassador
• Mindfulness MBSR
• Reflexology (RAC)
• Reiki Levels 1 & 2
• Sensory Friendly
• Systemic Inflammation, Food Intolerance, and Autoimmunity
• Trauma-informed
• Writing for Online Content

My Work

• Careful Crafters
• Bo Handcraft

How I work

I am available in a variety of ways to hire and support virtually:

• buy my products
• work with me 1-on-1
• hire me to design and or produce your stuff
• donate through a reading
• fund a nature walk
• make a documentary
• sponsor a Lego build video
• subscribe to my YouTube channel