Toronto Island

On the list of places I have always wanted to live, Toronto Island has a prominent spot. For those not familiar, it is a short ferry ride from downtown Toronto and it is green and beautiful and tranquil. My friend Julia, who is a friend of Anicee who I shared an atelier with in Marseille, needed to go out to the Island to pick up some bicycles so I tagged along.

It turned out to be one of those destiny type events. Julia’s bicycle was with her friend Jay Gazley, who is an artist in residence at the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, an artists’ colony on the island. Jay gave me a tour of the centre, which is in an old school, and it immediately flashed that I could come here and work on a book one day. You can get a studio and bedroom package for just 475 Canadian dollars in the winter (it goes up to 650 in the summer) and it has everything you need: a great community of people to keep you inspired and fight the writer’s loneliness; but quiet studios with doors that close so you can actually get work done. These kinds of possibilities make me want to live to about 140 so I can do everything I want to.