PSA: Rebranding

Drawn to Life I’m rebranding my art to “Drawn to Life”, which is resonating with me even more than “Amused to Life”, the working title of my poetry collection.

I so badly want my art to become a business, full time, but I’m not quite there where I have a full line of products to offer. So rather than a being a business name (like I had with D’inkling Publishing years back) it’s the name of the process I am going through to heal.

My intention above anything else is to heal from the trauma of the past 10 years since I left my day job along with the essential security and self worth I needed to function. Although not perhaps my deepest spirit's calling, that job gave me a healthy community, dignity and an amount of freedom and control in my life I have not had since starting out on my own path, (which seems both obvious and counter intuitive). Leaving my halfway prestigious career and financially secure life left me vulnerable to the defaults of my programing, attracting very scary people into my life. People who since high school had been few and far between, rushed into my life in droves.

Or maybe I just noticed the weird patterns more when I left my day job, which means apart from some really good friends from high school and college and some rare birds since, my whole life had been one long nightmare. I knew it yet I didn’t know it.
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It was addiction and quick fixes to numb the pain and fill the emptiness I had felt ever since growing out of the make believe phase of childhood.

It was an endless search to find a conceptual understanding that would solve the problem and set me free of the emptiness and feeling of unlovable ness. A

It was a life in which behind
nearly every thought and motion was the question “ok, now am I good enough?”

How does one serve others from such a broken place?

So how to I show up as myself where I am genuinely despite  being so lost.

By sharing my journey of drawing myself back to life

My only hope is that through drawing I will find healing and parts of me that have been hidden since I can remember will come to life. That I will literally and figuratively draw myself to life in every waking hour that I’m not wading through Excel docs to put food on the table.

It is my dearest desire that I stumble upon an art form or practice that resonates with others while also healing me, so I can be a living artist instead of the dying one I am now. Everyday I spend working in Excel and not doing my real work is another death - and this is no exaggeration - it’s simply how it feels. 10 years is way too long to be working on something and making no progress…

But seeing clearly now, there is opportunity for a fresh start. I am so excited for this new beginning! 

Love, 
​Amanda Ianthe