We recently connected with Amanda Lederle and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

In 2016, I had no choice but to take time off from working at a large company due to my mental health. This was the start of my journey to pursue my artistic and entrepreneurial self. During my time off, I had to take care of my mental wellness and it was then that I recognized that mental health and creativity were two pieces to my life puzzle. I’ve always been an artistic person. I grew up loving arts and crafts and went to school for film studies. Being an artist and supporting others have always been the foundation of who I am. Flash forward to wanting to help others recognize their artistic selves and their relationship with mental wellness, it became a professional calling.

In 2020, just as my partner and I were launching our mental wellness and creativity workshops, Covid paused our in-person business. It was now an opportunity to answer the question I have always wondered, “Could I make it as a professional artist?” As I started to create my Emotional Maps and sent them to magazines, galleries and other calls for submissions, I was validated to know that the answer was yes. Since then, I’ve kept going. Though there are many moments of rethinking, considerations of pivoting, and asking myself “What am I doing?”, I continue this path of being an Artist. No matter what I do, that is who I am, even if I am not creating, I am absorbing, exploring and seeking forms of expression.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Amanda Lederle (they/them) and I consider myself a recovering perfectionist and empathic human based in what is known as Toronto, a traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.

I paint and draw to explore themes of simplicity, self-understanding and connection. I started my practice to express my experience with depression and anxiety and my many emotions to find ways to feel connected to others in a solitude practice. As I developed and shared my work with others, it led me to public displays of my work. This has connected me to many others in ways I only dreamed of.

My work aims to connect with others in one’s search for self-identity and understanding. I have always been interested in life as a journey. My black-and-white, hand-drawn illustrations of Emotional Maps explore feelings using maps as a commentary on how we are not born with a roadmap to life and life leads us to many different places. Since my journey as an artist, I have had my Maps published in anthologies, shown in group exhibitions and I’ve led artist talks. It led me to Steps Initiative’s CreateSpace residency where I created my first public art mural and worked with leading Canadian companies to create other public works of art. I received a Toronto Arts Council grant, took part in the On Culture Days Artist-in-the-Library residency program, and Step Intiatives’s Placemaking workshop with Urban Planners, all to share my creative process and encourage others to create Emotional Maps of their own.

In addition to my black and white works, I love to explore light and colours. I have a series of painted boots and legs in acrylic paint, bringing to question assumptions and many facets of gender expression. I had my first solo exhibition of footwear paintings at Riverdale Gallery.

My interest in self-care, mental health and creativity spans outside of my art practice. I’ve led art-based mental health-focused workshops for teachers and students of all ages. I started being an Active Listener for Workman Arts, a multidisciplinary arts organization that supports artists living with mental health and addiction issues, of which I am a member. I then expanded my service to national festivals, conferences and workshops. Being an Active Listener has given me the opportunity to connect with people and be of service as a peer support.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The freedom to explore my self-expression and find ways of working that support my neurodiverse self.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think the journey of a creative person is one filled with generosity, vulnerability and honesty. Creatives/Artists put their world perspective out on display. The viewer has been given the gift of seeing a point of view, a captured feeling and a life experience that may be different from their own. As an artist, it is my way of connecting with another human being. I want to know I am not alone in my feelings; and as humans we share a spectrum of feelings. We may feel alone, and isolated, and that we don’t relate to others. However, the artistic journey I have been on has shown me that I am not alone and that people I’ve never met, who have come across my work feel we can relate. This act of connection to one another is what drives my creative journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amandalederle.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/amandalederle

Image Credits
All photos by me except ones labelled with the photographer’s name.