Today we’d like to introduce you to anne breedlove.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York, where I received my first ten-speed bike. I arrived in San Francisco in 1972 and decided to stay.
First met my husband Jim in the Mission District in ’73, we’ve been together since ’74. One of the things we bonded over was cycling.
A happenstance event in 1997 opened our eyes to the possibility of bicycling not just for fun and recreation but using the bike as a means of travel. In 2008 we decided to retire young (I was 54, Jim 61) to travel as much of the world on our bikes as could handle.
In two decades we biked twenty-one countries, approximately 40,000 loaded miles, to date, including crossing two continents – North America and Australia.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, I was the sixth of ten kids, we all knew we had to pay for college ourselves. I opted to attend in California because it was a much better value than NY in the seventies. I arrived in SF, age 18, with $300. First year was very difficult to get work. But I made it, went to good schools, bounced back and forth between two interesting careers – art and history. Met a nice guy, managed to buy a very modest first house in the East Bay, raised two kids – I chose to be a stay-at-home mom which led to economically straightened circumstances for awhile. Definitely restricted my career options but I’d do it again.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My two passions have been art and history, my first degree was in graphic arts, I worked as a graphic artist for printers, typographers, ad agencies and book publishers for twenty years. It was a fun time, to be young, downtown SF, quite a colorful cast of characters. Bittersweet, too, all those places are gone, wiped out by digital graphics. Later I returned to school to study history, I loved doing primary source research in the archives at Cal. My Master’s thesis (on nineteenth-century San Francisco women newspaper publishers) was published in the California Historical Society’s Quarterly. Kind of marrying graphics and history. I taught as an adjunct in several East Bay community colleges.
During all these years I practiced my preferred medium as an artist – screen printing. And my husband Jim and I spent a fair amount of time cycling. When we decided to retire young to travel the world by bicycle I always kept journals – writing and sketch.
And when we stopped cycling internationally to help out with grandchildren I decided to pursue my two passions personally. I went back to school for two-and-a-half years, studying fine-art printmaking. I have now been selling and showing my art, mostly in San Francisco, since 2019.
Then in 2019 I also pursued writing, taking out my journals and writing my first book about the discovery and learning processes involved to travel the world independently on our two bikes, It’s called Part-Time Nomads. I have now completed the first draft of my second book in the series. If I have the time and ability I hope to continuing writing and publishing books about our travels.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Well, I’m retired now though I have turned my art and writing into a small business. My goal is to sell enough art and books to make a profit. It doesn’t look auspicious, Thanks to digital computers most anyone can write a book these days. To market it and generate sales is very difficult. I’m learning as I go but I’m not too optimistic.
Pricing:
- My first book, a paperback, is a little over 300 pages, has 80 color. photographs, and sells online for $34. I get $3.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://annembreedlove.com
- Instagram: speedyab6