Happy New Year - 2023
Let’s see what happens! That’s my motto for my life and I’m going to continue with it in the New Year!
2022 was a huge and different year for us. This year was also an enormous learning process as I navigated a newly diagnosed medical condition and explored the creation of my first full season with STORYHIVE (I did a previous shorter season the year before, which is available on TELUS OPTIK TV On Demand). I have wanted to do a variety of arts since I was a child. I’ve always had big dreams. When I started noticing changes in my health during late 2018-2021, with already previous health conditions, I knew I had to work towards my dream of expanding my visual arts work and storytelling to include more film and share the work and stories of other artists. I’ve always been a prodigious reader. I have written short stories most of my life and I wanted to go further with that. The fear of having the idea and then not being able to do it, because of health, puts a fire under my feet and causes me to learn and try new things weekly.
This has now caught on to my husband and partner, Tanner.
Many people may not know, but Tanner had a project a long time ago in which he interviewed bands from all over the world and reviewed music. He was deeply passionate about sharing their stories. I didn’t know until much later, after we had met and he decided on a business degree, that he had wanted to pursue journalism and writing as well as create visual arts. This makes the work we are doing now deeply and personally important to us. We are both very passionate about capturing and sharing these stories with everyone! You never know how long the window of opportunity will be open, so if you have been thinking about trying something or applying for something, I encourage you to just try it this year! The worst that could happen is being told no or having a project fail, but what happens if it works out?
I am hopefully optimistic that I can work with my newly diagnosed medical condition and treatments in 2023 as I create both my second full season and my short film, among a variety of other exciting projects. It took me the entire year, but I am now better able to predict what will make my condition worse and avoid those situations as best as I can. Some are easier, like not carrying items, stress, going to very loud events, or getting too little sleep.
I am truly grateful for the opportunities STORYHIVE Connected by TELUS, the EAC, the CCA, and the EHC afforded me over the past two years. Tanner and I also really want to thank every participant in our series. You are all amazing! We are sincerely grateful for you and want to wish you the best in 2023! All episodes are now available on TELUS OPTIK TV ON DEMAND.
I am also really grateful that everyone involved was so understanding and accommodating as I learned to work with my new diagnosis while learning how to create my second docu-series and first community focused series. There were times Tanner nearly had to carry me out because I almost could not stand by the end of the interview. But now, with what I know about the condition, I can avoid most of the major flare-ups.
For season two, we again have an absolutely amazing lineup of extremely talented Edmontonians and have actually filmed the first episode recently! The artists are ones whose work you may have seen around the city and / or possibly the type of artist you are curious to find out more about what they do and why. The second season is tentatively scheduled for a mid-2023 release and Tanner and I are so excited to work on this and share it with the community.