New Blog – A look at the past year

New Blog

     I’ve decided to start writing a blog to help keep track of everything that’s going on in my life.  Also I think it will be a great way to keep in closer contact with my friends and family from the east coast that I don’t get to see or talk to very often.  Over the past 6 months my lifestyle has changed drastically in almost every possible way.  I’ve become a healthier, more productive, and happier person.  

     Over a year ago I moved out to Victoria, B.C. on the west coast of Canada from Saint John, N.B. on the east coast of Canada. That’s pretty much as far west as you can go without crossing an ocean.  The benefits for me were to get away from Saint John and the cold and move to the west coast which would hopefully present me with many more opportunities for my photography and a place where shoveling snow is non-existent.  The drawback to moving to this coast was the obvious lack of face time with my family and friends and starting over with my contacts and networking.

     Saint John was a place of great opportunities for me.  As someone who has always strived to try new things it seemed easy to stand out in a city that size.  My films and photography always got great feedback and press with newspaper stories, magazine covers, radio interviews etc… etc…  I moved back to Saint John in April of 2007 from Halifax to focus more on still photography. Through my creativity and passion I was able to meet some very interesting people in the area including many  successful filmmakers, musicians, a photographer who gave me the chance to work for him through which I gained a greater insight into commercial photography and a great group of skateboarders who quickly accepted me as a friend while allowing me to document a part of their lives.  

     The world finally began to make some sense to me that summer :  Following something you love will only give you treasures in life.  It is the only way to succeed.  Every step along the way will present you with more challenges and more people who tell you that what you’re trying is too hard and to settle down and try something more realistic, possible and solid.  Those are the people who chose the realistic, possible and solid routes.  They are scared you will fail just like they were scared to.  If everyone listened to those words then we wouldn’t have great films, photographs, music, technological and scientific advancements.  We wouldn’t be here today.

     So with my head filled with confidence I decided to pack up two suitcases with my clothes, laptop and camera gear and move across the country by myself away from everything I had built on the east coast to Victoria.  I had an 8 month work contract lined up, no money and one friend named Carolyn that I knew that lived there.  My plan:  Spend all my free time during my 8 month work contract taking photos to build a stronger portfolio and making trips to Vancouver to do some networking where I would be able to up and move to do my photography full time after the 8 months.  This plan seemed awesome.  In theory it was exciting.  In reality my 8 month contract involved long boring hours away from the city leaving me with little free time which ended up being used to sit around resting from work.  I even bought an Xbox and started to become really lazy.  New photos were few and far between.  A handful of model shoots with some up and coming models, not a single trip to Vancouver.   My life was becoming boring. I was becoming boring. 

     My book of photographs from the summer past and the trailers to my films from the summer before that were the only interesting thing about me. It was depressing to look back through them and realize how life on my terms had come to a stand still.  I even stopped playing guitar.  I wasn’t going out to meet new people.  Life really sucked.  To top it all off I even extended my contract by another year.  I was taking the “easy road”, the one that was “realistic”, “possible”, and “solid”.   

     It was at this point that I started to reconnect with the only friend I had in Victoria when I first moved here.  We had spent a few days together over those 8 months but nothing significant.  A bit of playing music, meeting up for brunch or going out for drinks.  Being an extremely active and talented young woman throughout her university years (pilot, musician, actress, etc..etc…) her graduation brought that all to a sudden stand still.  I think in a way she was coming to be at a point where I had been for a while.  Leaving a busy and productive lifestyle for one with brick wall, a ceiling, not many exciting “realistic” options.  It was through this that we started to come together to talk about more “unrealistic” options.  ”Carbonated Concepts” was the idea that spurred from these talks.  A community of networking geared towards creative people who could come together to help each other while using cross marketing techniques through monthly events that would feature a variety of our community.  (Like a fashion show with artists showing art on the walls and a local band playing with a local brewery selling their beer and an author speaking about his new book)   This idea finally came to the point where we decided on finding a “loft like” place to live with big white walls to display art and to make our headquarters for this project.  Walking through Chinatown a few hours before we were to close a deal for a place we found that was a little out of the way with a horrible view and the prospect of me sleeping on a couch, we looked up and saw these rooftop patios on a set of small buildings that seemed to be hidden away down an alleyway.  I’ve always envisioned myself living in a dream spot with a rooftop overlooking the city and art on the walls.

     Fast forward 6 months later and I find myself happier than ever.  I’ve opened a commercial art gallery this week on the bottom floor of one of those little ancient brick buildings down the alleyway in Chinatown and I live on the 2 floors and rooftop patio above it with my amazing girlfriend Carolyn who is a great partner in every possible way.  I spend my week still working full time on the same work contract while Carolyn works at our art gallery.  I make the 15 ride to work on my bicycle every morning before the sun comes up, the first time i’ve had a bike since I was in the 8th grade.    I come home and spend the evenings playing music with Carolyn, working on the gallery, looking for new artists to show, hosting fancy “soirees”, going to the weekly open mic nite that Carolyn hosts or going out and meeting new interesting people.   Work has become a lot less stressful now that I’m finally working towards something that is in line with my creativity and goals for the future and have started to plan a break from doing “regular” work when I can get to the point of living off of our gallery and my photography.

     I feel like I am back on top of managing my life the way that I was before.  I have taken up the lifestyle of thinking positively about the things I am going to achieve as I was doing before.  I feel grateful once again to have the things and people that I do in my life.   I’m 23 and life is good.

Dab Gallery, Victoria, BC, Dragon Alley

- Andrew Todd