Meet Tyler Garrett

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Garrett.

Hi Tyler, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I first moved to LA right before I went off to boot camp for the Air Force Reserves. When I got back to LA after all my training, every day felt like a vacation and I got wrapped up in that mindset for a few months. I was staying on my friend Robyn Kinney’s couch for a while before I got my own place and that’s when things started shifting for me. I moved to a cute studio off Obispo Ave in Long Beach and I really loved my studio, minus the terrible parking situation. Fast forward to a few months later, I fell into a severe depression. I did not want to wake up most days and even when I did I just had the hardest time. Nothing excited me, I missed that vacation feeling, and I was fed up of working to come home to basically just go back to work. Although I was only 27 at the time (I am now 31 as of April 2021), I felt like I was going through a midlife crisis. This depression led me to finding ways to improve myself and evolve into the best version of me. From this experience came the birth of my podcast “Finding My Joi”. Along this journey, I rediscovered my love for art, developed a love for photography, and strengthened my relationship with God. I also ended up moving to my dream city, San Diego in 2019.

Before this move, I had a project that I wanted to create but did not have the funds to start nor a camera. So I created a GoFund me to get help purchasing a camera. However, my friend Kali Petry and her husband Brian Petry gifted me with an old camera of theirs to begin my project. I am still working on that project but because of their gift, I was able to discover how much I love photography. I began a mentorship with my friend John Kornegay who helped me get more comfortable with using the camera and not letting it collect dust, but he lives on the east coast so it was a tad difficult to get hands on training. Then I connected with my friend Larry Wright and he helped me tremendously by mentoring me along my photography journey. With his help, I learned a lot about photoshop, my camera, the photography world and discovered how to make my photography into art that tells a story. While all this was going on, I was connecting with a friend who loved to paint and he helped me discover “joi” from painting. Painting became a form of therapy for me, and I love using it and my photography to make others feel “joi”. I am still enhancing these skills because I let them lie dormant for a while. But also because there is always something else to learn and some way to improve.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road at all. The biggest challenges have been improving my self-confidence, finances (both are expensive hobbies, haha), and improving my skills. I have not been the best at managing money and still working on this, but funding these two passions has been really hard yet I am extremely grateful for all the help I have had. I stopped drawing when I was around 14 years old because I believed others were better than me and that I should not even try. Growing up with this mindset for so long, it has been really hard to break this thought pattern down. I felt that all my work and photography was not worth it or not good enough. And this stopped me from marketing myself and it even made it hard for me to ask for help. I still struggle a bit with finances and improving my skills. They kind of work hand in hand because I had been so concerned with improving my finances that I devoted little time to improving my skills and more to working. However, I have found a way to begin improving both. Like the saying goes, “you make time for what you really want”.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I currently work for American Airlines as a ramp agent and I am a SSgt in the Air Force Reserves. But I prefer to think of myself as an artist. An artist that specializes in acrylic painting and photography. I am most proud of my drive to keep going and the work I create that has a powerful background or meaning behind it. I usually post the story of my work along with the image on my Instagram account. With all of my most recent projects, I am proud of the improvement I make. I feel what sets me apart from others is that I do not pin myself down to one category or style. I photograph and paint whatever I feel and that keeps me diverse.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: FindingMyJoi.com
• Instagram: @FindingMyJoi
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/findingmyjoi