Karen McDiarmid lives on Cortes Island, where she paints, writes, and swims year round in the Salish Sea. Her work as a photographer and clinical counsellor has taken her around the planet but in the past decade she’s travelled deep into landscapes closer to home. Jane, Hague Lake, is part of a series entitled Days of Fire and Rain, begun a few years ago as forest fires raged throughout British Columbia. Karen’s work has become increasingly informed by the underlying chaos and instability of the West Coast’s immense beauty, and of the wider world.